Effective exploration strategies for shape recognition with Edukoi

Ascertain which hand-exploration strategy (e.g., ordered scanning, circular tracing, or random exploration) yields superior shape recognition performance when using Edukoi to sonify geometric and astronomical images.

Background

During shape recognition tasks, students adopted varied strategies, including systematic scanning (left-to-right/top-to-bottom), circular tracing, and random exploration. Performance exceeded chance but lagged behind color recognition, suggesting strategy choice may influence outcomes.

The authors highlight a limitation of directly mapping individual pixels to sound for capturing object gestalt and suggest that exploration strategies—and potentially tactile guidance—may affect recognition, but they did not determine which strategy works best.