When Hearing Defers to Touch

TL;DR

This paper compares the sensitivities of hearing and touch by reconciling their detection thresholds, revealing that touch can outperform hearing in detecting small and slow objects under certain conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a method to compare auditory and tactile sensitivities on a common basis, challenging the assumption that hearing is inherently more sensitive than touch.

Findings

Touch is more effective than hearing for small, slow objects.

Detection thresholds for hearing and touch can be aligned under reasonable assumptions.

Sensitivity varies with object size and oscillation frequency.

Abstract

Hearing is often believed to be more sensitive than touch. This assertion is based on a comparison of sensitivities to weak stimuli. The respective stimuli, however, are not easily comparable since hearing is gauged using acoustic pressure and touch using skin displacement. We show that under reasonable assumptions the auditory and tactile detection thresholds can be reconciled on a level playing field. The results indicate that the capacity of touch and hearing to detect weak stimuli varies according to the size of a sensed object as well as to the frequency of its oscillations. In particular, touch is found to be more effective than hearing at detecting small and slow objects.