Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Testing Tactile Masking between the Forearms
Published on: February 10, 2016
Principles of part-whole selective perception by dynamic touch extend to the torso
Zsolt Palatinus1, Claudia Carello, M T Turvey
1Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06250-1020, USA. zsolt.palatinus@huskymail.uconn.edu
Abstract:
The haptic subsystem of dynamic touch expresses a novel form of part-whole selective perception. When wielding a nonvisible rod grasped at some intermediate point along its length, an individual can attend to and report the length of a part of the rod (e.g., the segment forward of the hand) or the length of the whole rod. Both perceptions relate to the rod's mass moments about the point of grasp but in systematically different ways. Previous demonstrations of this part-whole selectivity have been in respect to rods grasped by hand or attached to a foot. The authors demonstrated the part-whole selectivity for nonvisible rods attached to the shoulder girdle and wielded primarily by movements of the trunk with benchmark performance provided by the same rods grasped and wielded by hand. Their results suggest that part-whole selectivity is a haptic capability general to the body.
Related Concept Videos
Somatosensation
Gestalt Principles of Perception
Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System
The receptor level:
The receptor level is the first stage of sensation. It involves the detection of a stimulus by specialized sensory receptors. The stimulus must arrive within the receptor's receptive field. Next, the receptor converts the energy of the stimulus...
Tactile and Chemical Senses
Major Somatic Sensory Pathways
Introduction to Special Senses

