The effects of familiarity and orientation in the haptic change task

In seven experiments we examined haptic memory for location, item information, and orientation for 12 tangible pictures, geometrical forms, and letter shapes in the change task. The study evaluated the influence of stimulus familiarity on change task performance. In the change task, participants are exposed to an array of patterns and subsequently have to indicate which ones have been altered on a second array. We also sought to determine whether prior demonstrations of female advantages in the haptic change task were reliable (Heller et al., 2010). The present experiments failed to replicate gender differences, overall with large samples. When participants were told about the nature of the picture change they should anticipate (45° or 90° rotation, location exchange), comparable performance was found for the groups in Experiment 1. In another experiment, participants were not told what sort of change might occur, and higher performance was found for the 90° rotation group than for the location exchange and 45° groups. Participants benefited from explicit instructions about the nature of the change. Telling participants the names of the raised-line pictures during initial study improved both change performance with the pictures and subsequent recognition. Changes derived from the substitution of new tangible print capital letters were easier to detect than location exchanges of the letters. Changes from letters to geometrical shapes were easy to detect. High performance resulted when participants were told to indicate which tangible letters were turned (45° or 90°) or exchanged in a final experiment. The results suggest the importance of pattern familiarity in haptic spatial memory.