Training effects of a visual aid on haptic sensitivity in a needle insertion task

This paper describes an experiment conducted to measure human´s haptic sensitivity and the effects of haptic training with and without visual aid on a needle insertion task. The haptic training protocol consisted of a needle insertion task using dual-layer silicon samples. A visual aid was provided as a multimodal cue for haptic perception. Results show that for a novices´ group, training with a visual aid inhibited haptic perception. Hence, haptic skills must be trained differently from visuo-motor skills.