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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 31, 2026

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Published on: July 30, 2020

How haptic size sensations improve distance perception.

Peter W Battaglia¹, Daniel Kersten, Paul R Schrater

¹BCS and CSAIL, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America. pbatt@mit.edu

Plos Computational Biology

|July 9, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Human distance perception uses size cues, but not optimally. Our models reveal that the brain incorporates haptic size sensations and uses accurate priors for distance judgments, employing a "posterior sampling" method.

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Published on: July 30, 2020

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Design, Fabrication, and Administration of the Hand Active Sensation Test (HASTe)

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Published on: September 8, 2015

Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Perception Psychology
Computational Vision

Background:

Accurate distance perception is crucial for daily tasks.
Visual information alone confounds object size and distance, making accurate judgment challenging.
The brain's computational mechanisms for distance and size perception remain poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how human distance perception incorporates size cues.
To formulate and compare probabilistic models of size and distance perception.
To quantitatively determine the best model explaining human distance judgments.

Main Methods:

Developed a family of probabilistic models for size and distance perception.
Collected human distance judgments in an interception experiment.
Utilized Bayesian analysis to compare model predictions against experimental data.

Main Results:

Humans integrate haptic size sensations into distance perception.
This integration is suboptimal relative to the reliability of haptic information.
Perceptual priors for size and distance are environmentally accurate.
Distance judgments appear to be generated via perceptual "posterior sampling".

Conclusions:

Human distance perception actively incorporates size information, albeit suboptimally.
The brain utilizes accurate environmental priors and a "posterior sampling" mechanism.
Findings advance understanding of the computational basis of human distance perception and size integration.