Assessing the Stiffness Perception of Acupressure Massage Beginning Learners: A Pilot Study
Visually impaired licensed therapists must have the ability to perceive stiffness through their fingertips in the school for the blind. The teachers strive to provide careful introductory education based on a quantitative assessment of new students’ basic stiffness perception. However, assessment ma...
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doaj-8f7fb287d7a64c06b9346ce20e1deaff2021-04-02T23:03:44ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202021-04-01212472247210.3390/s21072472Assessing the Stiffness Perception of Acupressure Massage Beginning Learners: A Pilot StudyKouki Doi0Saito Sakaguchi1Takahiro Nishimura2Hiroshi Fujimoto3Shuichi Ino4Department of Information and Support, National Institute of Special Needs Education, Yokosuka 239-8585, JapanGraduate School of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa 359-1192, JapanCenter for Promoting Education for Persons with Developmental Disabilities, National Institute of Special Needs Education, Yokosuka 239-8585, JapanFaculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa 359-1192, JapanHuman Informatics and Interaction Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba 305-8566, JapanVisually impaired licensed therapists must have the ability to perceive stiffness through their fingertips in the school for the blind. The teachers strive to provide careful introductory education based on a quantitative assessment of new students’ basic stiffness perception. However, assessment materials to help teachers understand new students’ stiffness perception are lacking. This study aimed to develop suitable fundamental assessment materials that visually impaired licensed teachers could use to quantitatively assess the difference in the stiffness perception ability of beginning learners in the early stages of learning. They were asked to discriminate the presented materials one at a time, which consisted of thermoplastic elastomers with different degrees of stiffness. We used these materials to compare the beginning learners’ ability to perceive stiffness with that of teachers and found that teachers answered correctly at an overall significantly higher rate. Specifically, the teachers’ correct response rate (78.8%) for the stiffness perception of all presented stimuli was approximately 15% higher than the beginning learners’ correct response rate (64.2%). These results revealed areas of stiffness that are difficult for beginning learners to identify.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/7/2472assessment materialstiffness perceptionacupressure massagevisual impairmentbeginning learner |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Kouki Doi Saito Sakaguchi Takahiro Nishimura Hiroshi Fujimoto Shuichi Ino |
spellingShingle |
Kouki Doi Saito Sakaguchi Takahiro Nishimura Hiroshi Fujimoto Shuichi Ino Assessing the Stiffness Perception of Acupressure Massage Beginning Learners: A Pilot Study Sensors assessment material stiffness perception acupressure massage visual impairment beginning learner |
author_facet |
Kouki Doi Saito Sakaguchi Takahiro Nishimura Hiroshi Fujimoto Shuichi Ino |
author_sort |
Kouki Doi |
title |
Assessing the Stiffness Perception of Acupressure Massage Beginning Learners: A Pilot Study |
title_short |
Assessing the Stiffness Perception of Acupressure Massage Beginning Learners: A Pilot Study |
title_full |
Assessing the Stiffness Perception of Acupressure Massage Beginning Learners: A Pilot Study |
title_fullStr |
Assessing the Stiffness Perception of Acupressure Massage Beginning Learners: A Pilot Study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Assessing the Stiffness Perception of Acupressure Massage Beginning Learners: A Pilot Study |
title_sort |
assessing the stiffness perception of acupressure massage beginning learners: a pilot study |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Sensors |
issn |
1424-8220 |
publishDate |
2021-04-01 |
description |
Visually impaired licensed therapists must have the ability to perceive stiffness through their fingertips in the school for the blind. The teachers strive to provide careful introductory education based on a quantitative assessment of new students’ basic stiffness perception. However, assessment materials to help teachers understand new students’ stiffness perception are lacking. This study aimed to develop suitable fundamental assessment materials that visually impaired licensed teachers could use to quantitatively assess the difference in the stiffness perception ability of beginning learners in the early stages of learning. They were asked to discriminate the presented materials one at a time, which consisted of thermoplastic elastomers with different degrees of stiffness. We used these materials to compare the beginning learners’ ability to perceive stiffness with that of teachers and found that teachers answered correctly at an overall significantly higher rate. Specifically, the teachers’ correct response rate (78.8%) for the stiffness perception of all presented stimuli was approximately 15% higher than the beginning learners’ correct response rate (64.2%). These results revealed areas of stiffness that are difficult for beginning learners to identify. |
topic |
assessment material stiffness perception acupressure massage visual impairment beginning learner |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/7/2472 |
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