Comparing Intensity and Location-Based Tactile Change Detection Performance

Transmitting information in the tactile channel is a promising solution in complex domains such as aviation and healthcare because it can offload the often oversaturated visual and auditory channels. While the tactile modality is a promising means of presenting information, the phenomenon of change blindness has been repeatedly demonstrated in the tactile modality. To deepen our understanding of the limitations of tactile information processing it is critical to fully understand how change blindness affects the sense of touch. This study directly compared location-based (i.e., when there is a change in the location of the tactile cue) and intensity-based (i.e., when there is a change in tactile cue intensity) change detection to examine whether changes in location and intensity can be considered equally susceptible to change blindness.