Keywords

vibrotactile, guidance, target, selection, affordance

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to establish how vibrotactile guidance cues can be used to improve marksmanship. This work originated in an effort to provide covert communication, navigation, and weapon aiming cues for infantrymen. It is predominantly an application-driven investigation rather than driven a priori by specific theoretical predictions from models of human performance. Three experiments are presented. Experiment 1 established the affect on initial response to vibrotactile guidance cues of tactor placements on the palmer versus dorsal surface of the hand, and targets appearing left versus right of center. Results suggest that tactile cues provided on the left side of the medial line of the hand afford moving the hand to the left, while tactile cues provided on the right side of the medial line afford moving the hand to the right. Experiment 2 established the affect of continuous relative distance cues and on- versus off-target vibrotactile stimuli on reaction time and accuracy for target selection. Results indicated an interaction between the pulse rate of vibrotactile stimuli and the method used to highlight an "on-target" condition; the suppressed target condition was superior to the enhanced target condition when the pulse rate increased as the cursor moved closer to a target. Experiment 3 established if there are performance differences between discrete and continuous distance information for target selection, and investigated the interaction between the near-target pulse rate and on-target cues. Results indicate that maximizing the difference between near-target guidance cues and on-target cues reduces the target selection time, particularly when the near-target pulse rates are fast (ISI = 10 msec). The results also suggest that, as with vision, the vibrotactile off-target guidance cues are not necessary during the whole target selection task. Rather, the guidance cues can be provided only during the initial pop-up condition and during the sub-movements closing on the target.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2005

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Gilson, Richard

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Psychology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0000369

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0000369

Language

English

Release Date

May 2005

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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Psychology Commons

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