Touch and sight interaction in fabric sensory analysis

Abstract

In the assessment of a fabric by consumer, both sight and touch are involved. Fabric texture evaluation, by sensory analysis method, has often been performed using touch only in order to avoid the sight influence. This probably reduces the importance of the information that could be deduced if both senses were used. The present work aims at studying the interaction between sight and touch in fabric sensory evaluation. Thirteen fabrics have been evaluated by a trained panel using, first, touch only and, then, touch and sight together. The results obtained by the two tests have been compared using the Wilcoxon test. They have highlighted small differences between the two tests. However, they have confirmed that touch and sight supplement each other without altering fabric perception.