The cognitive difference of visual and imaged tactile sense of product forms

Abstract

Product morphology has affected the diversity of consumers' preference. When consumers obtain the product image through perceptual organs, it is possible for the visual sense to replace other senses and generate synesthesia. This study is intended to explore: 1. whether if the visual sense and imagined tactile sense of product forms are consistent in preference; and 2. whether if the cognition preference of the four products with different figure is consistent when viewing the objects simultaneously and individually. The experiment designed four cups with different forms and separately processed a two-phase test of the visual and imagined tactile senses. The analysis result shows that visual and imagined tactile sense possesses slight consistency with product preference, which both reached significant level. Therefore, the preference results of most test subjects in both visual and imaginary tactile sense achieved consistency. Among the four cups, Cup 2 revealed far lower score in the visual sense than in the tactile sense within the pleasure degree, while Cup 3 shown far greater visual points than tactile. The results of experimenting the four cups with different forms yet with same color and material, did not agree with our hypothesis, the anticipation to see and the anticipation to touch were in inverse proportion. The outcome indicated that creative design products via the consumer's view may emerge cognitive difference. Thus, the results of this study can provide products which are in development a better understanding of consumer perception and a foundation for future studies. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.