Stroop Interference and Facilitation Effects in Kinesthetic and Haptic Tasks

Stroop interference and facilitation e ffects were documented in the visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory modalities. This studyextends the Stroop phenomena also for kinesthetic and haptic tasks. In a touch-enabled computer interface, participants touchedand manipulated virtual objects (cylinders, cubes, and tiles), throug h a pen-like stylus, and identified their haptic qualities (weight,firmness, vibrations). Similarly, participants were stimulated with a mechanical force pushing their hands lightly towards a specificdirection which they had to identify. While performing these identific ation tasks, participants were simultaneously presented withwords or symbols that were congruent, neutral, or incongruent withthe experienced kinesthetic/haptic sensations. Error rates andresponse times were a ffected in the following order: congruent < neutral < incongruent. As technologies advance into multisensorysystems, engineers and designers can improve human-computer int eractions by ensuring optimal congruence between all the inter-and intra-sensory elements in the display.