ABSTRACT
A good deal of research has shown that perceiving heaviness by dynamic touch is dependent on the moments of the mass distribution of a wielded object, in particular, mass and rotational inertia. Independent manipulation of the moments can be achieved with specially constructed objects. So-called tensor objects were designed to allow a wide range of variation in the variables. In the experiments, the issue of rotation point was made moot by restricting the objects’ rotation to the coronal plane about an axle. The maximum principal moment of inertia and static moment were manipulated by means of rods and attached weights. Two additional manipulations assessed the malleability of heaviness perception in different movement contexts. Object orientation was either vertical, with the attached weights primarily below the hand to exploit the pendulum-like nature of the objects, or horizontal, with the attached weights primarily away from the thumb side, to enhance the torque needed to maintain the required orientation.
