Touch
Touch research investigates how linguistic descriptions shape haptic perception and material evaluation. We examine how abstract adjectives (e.g., sharp, smooth) as well as richly sensory lexical systems such as Japanese mimetic words (e.g., zara-zara ‘rough’, fuwa-fuwa ‘fluffy’) activate tactile representations and guide exploratory behaviour. This work tests whether language scaffolds perceptual learning by directing attention to diagnostically relevant features.