Hot and Cold Confusion
Hot and Cold Confusion
Hot and Cold Confusion
• Introduction
• Methods
• Experiment 1a
• Experiment 1b
• Experiment 2
• Results
• Conclusion
• Strengths & Weakness
• Future directions
What is Known
Thermal domination:
temperature of center stimuli is HCH
perceived the same as other
stimuli despite being different HHH
What is unknown
• Domination hypothesis
• If the outer stimuli dominates the center stimuli, then inverse thermal
sensations at only the center will be perceived
• Mutual-effect hypothesis
• Inverse thermal sensation would occur at the outer locations and the
center when the temperature smaller in number does not dominate the
temperature larger in number.
Methods
Experiment 1a
• Participants: 15 males around 23 years
old
• Temperature of room set to 25.0°C
• Place arm on apparatus for 15 seconds
• Record temperature
• 8 trials in total, interspaced by 2-minute
intervals
Experiment 1b
• Procedures
• The same procedure as experiment 1a but...
• Experienced each condition 3 times
• Had to select perceived thermal sensation at each point from a 7-
point scale: very cold, cold, slightly cold (cool), null, slightly hot
(warm), hot, and very hot
• They reported feeling of pain and burning sensation at each point
• Added a neutral stimulus and had 12
combinations
Experiment 2 • Participants: 10 males around 23 years old
• Same requirement as experiment 1 for
screening
Procedures
Experiment 1a Experiment 1b
Experiment 2
• Inverse thermal sensation was
perceived even with neutral stimulus
• Inverse thermal sensation did not
occur when neutral stimulus was
placed at the center point
• Participants perceived cold closer to
the wrist regardless of stimulus
presented
• Reports of pain and hot and cold
confusion would occur at the same
time
Pain
Reports of pain and hot and cold
confusion would occur at the
same time
In experiment 2 pain was
reported in combinations where
confusion did not occur
Conclusions
• They used the same distance and only tested on the wrist
• Participants were in the same age range and all male
• How applicable would the data be to other individuals? Would
individuals perceive heat and cold sensation differently depending on
the environment they live in?
Future directions