4 ms·

Hand Size--Not Sex--Determines Sense of Touch

16 points by prat 17y ago

mtinkerhess 17y ago
But sex determines hand size, so sex does determine sense of touch -- just not in the brain like they thought it might. </nitpicking>
- Retric 17y ago
  Sex correlates to but does not determine hand size.
  - tokenadult 17y ago
    correlates to but does not determine The parent to your comment refers to "determine" in the statistical sense (just as in the submitted article), and so this point needs to be looked at further.
    - Retric 17y ago
      "this point needs to be looked at further." why? On average, men and women with the same size fingertips perform at the same level so once you know the size of someones fingertips knowing their gender is useless (in this context). What more do you want to study?
      - tokenadult 17y ago
        Thanks for the follow-up question. "(Finger size does not explain all individual variability, however; there are differences between people with the same size fingers, perhaps as a result of differences in the mechanical properties of skin or in how each person's brain processes the information.)" "However, other types of tactile tasks may not work the same way, he adds. For example, passively pressing the skin against a textured object--as the study participants did--involves different neuronal pathways than actively moving the fingers around an object and may be controlled differently." You are correct that the cited study found for its sample "when the scientists looked at the results by finger size, they found that the sex difference disappeared." Then one would want to check other forms of touch perception, as mentioned in the submitted article, try another sample for replication, http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html and so on.
  - btilly 17y ago
    Likewise in the study hand size correlates, but does not determine, sensitivity to touch. The point of the study is that given both hand size and sex, sex does not matter. That is a significant result.

16 points by prat 17y ago

But sex determines hand size, so sex does determine sense of touch -- just not in the brain like they thought it might. </nitpicking>

Retric 17y ago
Sex correlates to but does not determine hand size.
- tokenadult 17y ago
  correlates to but does not determine The parent to your comment refers to "determine" in the statistical sense (just as in the submitted article), and so this point needs to be looked at further.
  - Retric 17y ago
    "this point needs to be looked at further." why? On average, men and women with the same size fingertips perform at the same level so once you know the size of someones fingertips knowing their gender is useless (in this context). What more do you want to study?
    - tokenadult 17y ago
      Thanks for the follow-up question. "(Finger size does not explain all individual variability, however; there are differences between people with the same size fingers, perhaps as a result of differences in the mechanical properties of skin or in how each person's brain processes the information.)" "However, other types of tactile tasks may not work the same way, he adds. For example, passively pressing the skin against a textured object--as the study participants did--involves different neuronal pathways than actively moving the fingers around an object and may be controlled differently." You are correct that the cited study found for its sample "when the scientists looked at the results by finger size, they found that the sex difference disappeared." Then one would want to check other forms of touch perception, as mentioned in the submitted article, try another sample for replication, http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html and so on.
- btilly 17y ago
  Likewise in the study hand size correlates, but does not determine, sensitivity to touch. The point of the study is that given both hand size and sex, sex does not matter. That is a significant result.