Expertise effects in cutaneous wind perception
Joost P. Pluijms (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Rouwen Cañal-Bruland (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Wouter M. Bergmann Tiest (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
F.A. Mulder (TU Delft - OLD Computer Aided Design Engineering)
Geert J.P. Savelsbergh (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
We examined whether expertise effects are present in cutaneous wind perception. To this end, we presented wind stimuli consisting of different wind directions and speeds in a wind simulator. The wind simulator generated wind stimuli from 16 directions and with three speeds by means of eight automotive wind fans. Participants were asked to judge cutaneously perceived wind directions and speeds without having access to any visual or auditory information. Expert sailors (n = 6), trained to make the most effective use of wind characteristics, were compared to less-skilled sailors (n = 6) and to a group of nonsailors (n = 6). The results indicated that expert sailors outperformed nonsailors in perceiving wind direction (i.e., smaller mean signed errors) when presented with low wind speeds. This suggests that expert sailors are more sensitive in picking up differences in wind direction, particularly when confronted with low wind speeds that demand higher sensitivity.
help_outline