Not only in the eye of the beholder: Tactile information can affect aesthetic evaluation.

The study tested if evaluation of Aesthetic quality is influenced by tactile information and whether the evaluation process is affected more by one modality (vision) than another (touch). Tactile sensing and visual appreciation were compared with combined visual and tactile sensing of surface textures. Three kinds of plastic textures on the outside of a DVD container and three sample swatches of the textures used on the DVDs were used in the study. Three DVD containers were presented visually to the participants. This was followed by a blind haptic evaluation (i.e., the participants could only feel but not see the swatches) of the three different textured swatches, and then by combined visual and tactile evaluation of the three differently textured DVDs. One hundred and twelve participants took part in all 3 evaluations. A regression analysis showed that in 2 of the 3 conditions tested, overall Aesthetic evaluation was influenced both by vision and touch. To what extent the modalities influenced the evaluation depended upon which of the textures had been evaluated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)