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Analysis of institutional authors

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April 9, 2018
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Sensory substitution: Using a vibrotactile device to orient and walk to targets

Publicated to:JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-APPLIED. 24 (1): 108-124 - 2018-03-01 24(1), DOI: 10.1037/xap0000154

Authors: Lobo, Lorena; Travieso, David; Jacobs, David M; Rodger, Matthew; Craig, Cathy M

Affiliations

Queen's University Belfast - Author
Queens Univ Belfast, Sch Psychol, Belfast, Antrim, North Ireland - Author
Univ Autonoma Madrid, Fac Psicol, Ivan Pavlov 6, E-28049 Madrid, Spain - Author
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid - Author

Abstract

This study investigates how active exploration helps users of sensory substitution devices (SSDs) to detect action-relevant information. A vibrotactile SSD was developed that generates stimulation that is contingent on the users' movements. Target direction was specified by the location of the vibratory stimulation, and target distance by the size and intensity of the pattern of stimulation. A series of experiments was performed with blindfolded participants. In Experiments 1a to 1c, participants used the SSD to align their central body axis with prespecified targets. These experiments differed in the number of actuators that were used and whether online perception-action coupling was present. In Experiment 2, participants approached targets with forward locomotion along a straight line. Experiment 3 combined the previous experiments and studied the concomitant walking and steering toward targets. Oscillatory movements, which facilitated information pickup, were observed in all experiments. The exploratory oscillations were shown to depend on the online perception-action coupling and were related to cases of hyperacuity, for which absolute errors were found to be smaller than the areas of sensitivity of the actuators. It is concluded that, to improve the utility of SSDs, future research with SSDs should pay more attention to the role of active information detection. (PsycINFO Database Record(c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Keywords

Augmented realityEcological psychologyElectronic travel aidsHaptic flowSensory substitution

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-APPLIED due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2018, it was in position 36/81, thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Psychology, Applied. Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q2 para la agencia Scopus (SJR) en la categoría Experimental and Cognitive Psychology.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.14. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 1.1 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 3.81 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-16, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 20
  • Scopus: 21
  • Europe PMC: 1

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-16:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 59.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 60 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 2.35.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 4 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United Kingdom.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (LOBO NAVAS, LORENA) .