A perceptual analysis of viscosity

The perception of viscosity was studied using the contralateral limb-matching procedure in which subjects adjusted the viscosity of a motor connected to the wrist of one (matching) arm until it was perceived to be the same as that of the motor attached to the other (reference) arm. Two servo-controlled electromagnetic linear motors with computer-controlled viscosity were used to present viscosities ranging in amplitude from 2 to 1024 N.s/m to 11 subjects. Ten different viscosities were matched by subjects, and there were ten repetitions of each stimulus amplitude. The psychophysical function relating the reference to matching viscosity was linear (99% variance accounted for), and the accuracy with which the viscosities were matched (slope of 0.88) paralleled that reported previously for force, limb position and stiffness. The Weber fraction for viscosity was 0.34, which is 50% larger than that measured for stiffness and over twice that reported for force. An analysis of the movements and forces generated to perceive the reference viscosity revealed that subjects did not vary the amplitude of the movements and typically made very small excursions of the forearm, but that both the velocity of the movements and force changed significantly as a function of the reference viscosity. These findings were interpreted as indicating that the human proprioceptive system is capable of integrating information regarding force and movement velocity so as to perceive the viscosity of a mechanical system connected to the limbs, but that its sensitivity to changes in viscosity is much less than would be predicted from its capacity to detect variations in muscle force and limb movement.