# Toward an Intelligible Vibrotactile Stimulation: A Gestalt-Based Perspective

Garance Dubessy, Bruno Berberian, Sylvain Pauchet, Jean-Christophe

Sarrazin, Dong-Bach Vo

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Garance Dubessy, Bruno Berberian, Sylvain Pauchet, Jean-Christophe Sarrazin, Dong-Bach Vo. Toward an Intelligible Vibrotactile Stimulation: A Gestalt-Based Perspective. CHItaly 2025: CHItaly 2025: 16th Biannual Conference of the Italian SIGCHI Chapter, Oct 2025, Salerno Italy, France. pp.1-6, 10.1145/3750069.3750435. hal-05504817

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SHORT-PAPER

# Toward an Intelligible Vibrotactile Stimulation: A Gestalt-Based Perspective

**GARANCE DUBESSY**, Community of Universities and Establishments of Toulouse, Toulouse, Occitanie, France

**BRUNO BERBERIAN**, Community of Universities and Establishments of Toulouse, Toulouse, Occitanie, France

**SYLVAIN PAUCHET**, Community of Universities and Establishments of Toulouse, Toulouse, Occitanie, France

**JEAN CHRISTOPHE SARRAZIN**, Community of Universities and Establishments of Toulouse, Toulouse, Occitanie, France

**DONG BACH VO**, Community of Universities and Establishments of Toulouse, Toulouse, Occitanie, France

Open Access Support provided by:

Community of Universities and Establishments of Toulouse

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# Toward an Intelligible Vibrotactile Stimulation: A Gestalt-Based Perspective

Garance Dubessy*

Fédération ENAC ISAE-SUPAERO
ONERA

Toulouse, France

DTIS, ICNA

ONERA

Salon - Air, France

garance.dubessy@onera.fr

Bruno Berberian

Fédération ENAC ISAE-SUPAERO
ONERA

Toulouse, France

DTIS, ICNA

ONERA

Salon - Air, France

bruno.berberian@onera.fr

Sylvain Pauchet*

Fédération ENAC ISAE-SUPAERO
ONERA

Toulouse, France

sylvain.pauchet@enac.fr

Jean-Christophe Sarrazin

Fédération ENAC ISAE-SUPAERO
ONERA

Toulouse, France

DTIS, ICNA

ONERA

Salon - Air, France

Jean-Christophe.Sarrazin@onera.fr

Dong-Bach Vo

Fédération ENAC ISAE-SUPAERO
ONERA

Toulouse, France

dong-bach.vo@enac.fr

## Abstract

Vibrotactile interfaces offer a promising alternative to vision and audition in critical environments, although they remain underutilized. This paper argues that current design strategies often focus on low-level parameters, and neglect perceptual organization, which in turn limits intelligibility and broader adoption. We propose a perspective with Gestalt theory as a relevant framework to structure vibrotactile feedback in a more robust manner. Reinterpreted through contemporary models such as Bayesian inference, Gestalt principles may inform the design of vibrotactile feedback due to their capacity to be rapidly and reliably processed, even under noisy or cognitively demanding conditions. We aim to provide future directions for the development of vibrotactile interfaces by promoting an approach grounded in holistic perceptual processing of information, with the goal to enhance situations handling, thereby improving the safety of the operator in critical contexts.

## CCS Concepts

* **Human-centered computing** → Human computer interaction (HCI); HCI theory, concepts and models.

## Keywords

Gestalt, Human-Computer Interface (HCI), vibrotactile feedback, critical situation, perception, Bayesian cognition

## ACM Reference Format:

Garance Dubessy, Bruno Berberian, Sylvain Pauchet, Jean-Christophe Sarrazin, and Dong-Bach Vo. 2025. Toward an Intelligible Vibrotactile Stimulation: A Gestalt-Based Perspective. In *CHItaly 2025: 16th Bian-nual Conference of the Italian SIGCHI Chapter (CHItaly 2025), October 06-10, 2025, Salerno, Italy*. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3750069.3750435

## 1 Introduction

Over the past decades, studies in critical environments such as aeronautics, the automotive industry, the medical field and industrial facilities have numerously stressed the potential of vibrotactile interfaces [17, 33, 39, 42, 47]. While most Human-Computer Interfaces (HCI) in these contexts rely on visual and auditory modalities, vibrotactile feedback offers a complementary or alternative solution to mitigate the possible sensory and cognitive overloads of the operator when other senses are monopolized [45]. Vibrotactile feedback allows delivering passive and external signals through the skin [11], enabling rapid perception and minimal cognitive load [45]. In addition, it has been suggested that vibrotactile feedback could be relevant for conveying attentional alerts [28, 33, 41], and spatial guidance in noisy or complex environments [39, 44]. Despite their potential, vibrotactile feedback still struggles to become a reliable means of interaction in operational contexts [45].

In our view, this limited use of the vibrotactile dimension in HCI is the result of two factors. First, despite being a sense highly stimulated in our daily life, the tactile modality is underexplored and poorly understood [45], compared to vision or audition [31, 48, 49], and only a subset of studies concerns specifically vibrotactile perception [8]. This lack of research makes it difficult to understand the mechanisms underlying vibrotactile perception, which may slow down the expansion of vibrotactile feedback in HCI. Secondly, the design approaches usually tend to focus on psychophysics methods, prioritizing low-level parameters (e.g., frequency, waveforms)

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<footnote>*Corresponding authors.</footnote>
rather than perceptual processes [40]. Particularly, signal-centered views are generally testing iterations of parameters generated without paying sufficient attention to how these stimuli are experienced and perceived by the operator [2], limiting intelligibility, learnability, and operator acceptance of such devices.

Improving intelligibility may require to focus on higher-level processes by understanding and taking advantage of the cognitive mechanisms underlying perception. These considerations lead us to re-examine the theoretical basis underlying vibrotactile perception, raising the following question: Can we use theories of perceptual organization to establish design principles for more intelligible and effective vibrotactile feedback? To address the latter, we propose Gestalt theory as a promising framework.

Gestalt theory has offered valuable insights into the processing of complex environments, reducing perceptual ambiguity and enhancing the salience of information [14]. While Gestalt principles have informed HCI design in the visual domain serving as a basis for widely adopted design guidelines [7, 24], their application to tactile perception remains underexplored [10, 20]. Considering tactile's lower spatial and temporal resolution than vision [1, 20], these constraints might make Gestalt especially well-suited for design strategies that focus on the operator's perception by leveraging perceptual organization principles. Our discussion will be organized into three sections: What is Gestalt theory? How can it be integrated and formalized within modern frameworks of perception? How can it inform the design of vibrotactile HCI for critical situations? This work aims to posit the tactile sense, especially vibrotactile perception, as a robust information channel by providing a theoretical direction grounded in perceptual organization, from which we intend to derive, through further investigations, more adapted conception principles for a more effective perception.

## 2 An observed phenomenon: what is Gestalt theory?

Gestalt psychology emerged in the early 20th century as a reaction against the structuralist movement, challenging its way of breaking down perceptual processes into individual, low level, elements. In contrast, the Berlin school of Gestalt psychologists developed a vision of perception embedded in phenomenology, where perception is seen as a holistic process [26, 51]. The theory claims that we tend to perceive a scene as a construction of a whole that encompasses the relation of its intrinsic elements, rather than focusing on its individual elements and simply summing them.

Gestalt theory encompasses several principles to describe how elements are grouped together. Among them, the notion of Prägnanz holds a foundational role. Also described as “good form”, it has frequently and inaccurately been reduced to a “simplicity” law. Rather, Prägnanz is not solely referring to simplicity but also as a process that would reach the most coherent, stable, and optimal configuration of the elements in our environment among all possible interpretations of a stimulus [50]. Later, Van Geert & Wagemans [2024] pertinently refined the concept stating that:

> “Prägnanz law concerns a tendency towards the best possible experienced organization (i.e., Gestalt) given the prevailing external and internal condition.” [46]

With their definition, they incorporated the notion of Gestalt as a dynamical process that would reach some equilibrium through the handling of sensory inputs that provide the context from the external environment, as well as considering the individual, within its internal state and past experiences. Thus, Prägnanz emerged from the interaction of these components and not from the stimuli itself. To characterize Prägnanz complexity, Rausch's seven qualities [38] assessed dichotomic aspects of this concept with parameters such as lawfulness against randomness, autonomy against derivedness, integrity against disruption, simplicity of structure against complicatedness of structure, complexity and element richness against barrenness and meagerness, expressiveness against lack of expression, and meaningfulness against meaninglessness [46]. However, these qualities have never been experimentally investigated. Wertheimer and his colleagues then formulated principles as special cases of Prägnanz that follow specific grouping laws of stimuli organization (i.e., proximity, similarity, closure, good continuation, common fate) [26, 51]. These laws describe the parameters under which elements are grouped. For instance, proximity refers to the tendency to group elements that are spatially close to each other, similarity law groups elements by size, shape, color or even texture, and closure leads perceiving features as complete even when they have missing or partially hidden parts.

Another important extension of Gestalt theory is its application to learning and problem-solving. Koffka [26], alongside Köhler [27], worked on the concept of insight, that can be defined by a sudden restructuring of a problem leading to its instantaneous solving. This extension beyond perception into other cognitive processes has been further followed by other studies on memory [55] or productive thinking [52]. This body of literature supports the wide range of cognitive processes that are at stake with Gestalt theory. Gestalt theory is not solely confined to perception processes but seems to be embedded in a bigger picture, influencing other cognitive functions accordingly [30].

The body of research on Gestalt theory tends to state that it is a phenomenon beyond vision, shared across sensory modalities [9]. Gestalt grouping by similarity has been described in audition [5], and both proximity and similarity in exploratory tactile modality [10]. In vibrotactile modality, such grouping tendencies also appear for proximity [18] and good continuation (i.e., the tendency to favor continuous patterns rather than split ones). The latter, well known in vision (Figure 1.1.) could also be described in the vibrotactile modality and be put in parallel with the continuous temporal illusion [25], where a vibrotactile target disrupted by noise vibrations (Figure 1.2a) is still perceived as a continuous stimulation vibrating at a single frequency (Figure 1.2b.). A spatial analogue of vibrotactile good continuation may be found in the cutaneous rabbit illusion [21]. On the skin, a continuous sensation of stimulation can be perceived while only two skin locations are stimulated (Figure 1.3.).

Despite past challenges in formalizing Gestalt phenomena, a growing body of research has recently renewed interest in the theory, motivated by advances in perceptual organization and computational models of perception [14, 23, 29, 46]. This resurgence reflects a broader willingness to revisit Gestalt concepts, underlining their potential relevance if reframed within modern frameworks. The following section explores this theoretical realignment in detail.
<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Figure 1: Illustration of the Gestalt principle of good continuation in vision and vibrotactile modalities. 1. Visual illustrations. 2. Temporal vibrotactile illustration (adapted from [25]). A. Vibrotactile pattern used to elicit temporal continuity, composed of target stimulations (500ms) interrupted by variable noise (100–500ms). b. The resulting percept is experienced as a single continuous vibration. 3. Spatial vibrotactile illustration, the cutaneous rabbit illusion [21], where repeated stimulations at two skin locations produce a sensation of continuous stimulation between them.</figcaption></figure>

## 3 Toward a contemporary framework of perception for Gestalt

Although cognitive science has mainly shifted from phenomenological approaches to computational frameworks, recent research has tried to reconcile both perspectives, offering new insights into Gestalt theory through the lens of modern models of perception. Bayesian inferences have been largely developed over the past decades, postulating probabilistic inference where the brain generates posterior predictions about the external world by integrating the optimal combination of three different parameters. Firstly, the likelihood of the prediction represents the probability for the event to be observed given the sensory inputs. Secondly, prior beliefs reflect the probability of an event to occur based on past experiences. Finally, model evidence reflects the sensory data gathered through sensory inputs [13, 16]. The brain is therefore minimizing uncertainty by adjusting expectations to the context and prior knowledge. Interestingly, an attempt to integrate this optimal combination has been experimented in the tactile domain [32]. In addition, predictive coding expands this framework by offering a dynamic and hierarchical relation between top-down predictions made from prior beliefs and bottom-up sensory inputs [37]. Prediction errors are inferred to update prior beliefs by the comparison of actual observations with higher-order representations [12, 19]. achieving the most stable representation [22].

These models resonate with Gestalt theory, converging on the idea of how perceptual processes are stabilizing ambiguous information to make sense of a situation, leveraging some patterns that would be a “good form” or, in Bayesian terms, reach a certain likelihood, making a higher posterior prediction. In particular, if Prägnanz tendency helps to facilitate perception, it may converge with the idea of the maximal posterior estimate which may correspond to this “good form” being the most economical solution

with a lesser number of updates needed, hence fitting the predictions made on the situation [49]. In other words, Bayesian frameworks such as predictive coding would provide Gestalt principles a formalized frame by incorporating it as strong priors regulating organizational processes of percepts, especially for ambiguous situations. A deeper common assumption is that perception is shaped by environmental regularities consolidated over time that are encoded as top-down priors, which are in turn modulating bottom-up processing [15]. Gestalt principles may not be outdated but rather represent strategies recruited to meet the needs of an accurate processing of environments where the stabilization of the perception requires minimizing ambiguity and optimizing efficiency.

This theoretical reframing may particularly inform design strategies that aim to provide an effective way to display accurate information for critical situations. Recognizing Gestalt and its principles as structuring tendencies which are interacting with the properties of the environment, would make possible to go further than just considering low-level parameters individually for design implementation. Instead, stimuli such as vibrotactile feedback could benefit from this match of expectations and organizational tendencies, to improve intelligibility while limiting uncertainty.

## 4 What would be the benefits to the design of vibrotactile stimulations for critical situations?

Critical situations place operators under high cognitive demands, including divided attention, time pressure, environmental noise, and the need for fast and accurate decision-making [45, 56]. In such contexts, there is no room for error, as mistakes can have serious consequences for the safety of the operator and others. Designing vibrotactile interfaces that support operator performance with limited impact on the cognitive burden, while being rapidly intelligible with as little ambiguity as possible and resistant to noise, is essential [45]. When designing interfaces, controlling
their effect on the operator's performance is crucial. The following sections explore which property of Gestalt approach could optimize vibrotactile feedback for critical situations with aeronautics as a context where pilots are put in a complex, noisy, risky, and time-constrained environment.

## 4.1 Emergence in perception

Gestalt theory posits that percepts tend to spontaneously emerge when they are coherently organized [35]. These configurations lead to emergent features [36], which refer to perceptual properties that are perceived rapidly and efficiently because they follow principles such as proximity, closure, or continuity. From a Bayesian perspective, this emergence reflects the tendency to favor percepts aligning with internal priors with the aim to minimize prediction error [12]. When stimuli can be organized into a coherent structure (i.e., a Gestalt “good form”), a configurational superiority effect emerges and may support perceptual efficiency in complex environments. The following sections explore how this property may facilitate rapid, robust, stable, and cognitively efficient tactile feedback under critical contexts.

4.1.1 *Toward a rapid and accurate information processing.* Emergent percepts, by forming coherent, intelligible percepts, may lead to faster and more accurate discrimination compared to unstructured stimuli [35]. In the visual domain, detection tasks leveraging Gestalt stimuli showed shorter reaction times and an overall better accuracy in a detection task compared to random patterns [36]. Applied to vibrotactile designs, this suggests a possible reduction of the delay between information presentation and processing could be obtained, reducing the amount of time needed to process information. For example, leveraging such patterns with pilots in aircraft cockpits would enable them to manage rapid processing, helping them to make crucial decisions in a short period of time.

4.1.2 *Robustness against perceptual ambiguity and noise.* Surrounding vibrations in the cockpit can often mask the tactile signal [45, 47]. Designing a vibrotactile interface resistant to this limitation is primordial. Thanks to Gestalt grouping, perceptual stability can be obtained and might help to limit the loss or masking of the signal by being salient enough. Continuity illusion can be perceived when vibrotactile patterns are displayed closely in time resisting noise introduced in between [25]. By leveraging the continuity principle there is a possibility to convey information even in the presence of noise around it. In the context of piloting, such manipulation of principles may be used to deliver long or continuous information without being bothered by plane parasite vibrations. In addition, short stimuli presentation involving Prägnanz tendency can also stand out from the noise. Such stimuli processing favors the most coherent and stable interpretation, even if the input is ambiguous or incomplete. Visual stimuli following Gestalt organizations are more likely to be accurately identified despite background noise [14]. Even when the information presented is incomplete or ambiguous, this type of stimulus is identified with more accuracy and faster than a stimulus that does not call upon Gestalt organization. Stimuli that make Gestalt representations emerge are robust to environmental degradation. Taken together, if a stimulus is constructed to make a Gestalt interpretation appear, the latter

percept would spontaneously arise. This would perfectly suit the cockpit environment by making it possible to inform the pilot with reliable information that he would perceive correctly.

4.1.3 *Stability in perception.* Stability in perception can be improved by using Gestalt organizations. In a binocular rivalry paradigm, Gestalt eliciting structured stimuli were less likely to be perceptually suppressed compared to unstructured stimuli [4]. This suggests that when a Gestalt is perceived, the brain might maintain it over time, making it resistant to disruptions. The information loss might be lessened than when stimuli are not organized to elicit a Gestalt percept. In vibrotactile feedback devices, exploiting Gestalt principles may help to reduce signal loss, especially as the tactile sense possesses a lower resolution than vision. This would ensure that intelligible and reliable information would be transmitted to the operator. This perceptual stability could be linked to the persistence of a preferred hypothesis in a Bayesian framework. When a Gestalt perception emerges, it may match highly probable priors and result in being less likely to be disrupted [19].

4.1.4 *Reduction of cognitive load.* Finally, critical environments induce high cognitive loads, with numerous information processes occurring simultaneously. As a result, operators such as pilots must divide their attentional resources. Wickens’ model of Multiple Resource Theory [2002] accounts for a certain preservation of resources by redistributing information across distinct senses [53]. That is why conveying information through tactile modality in addition to vision and audition may help to offload the large flow of information. But to be efficient, vibrotactile stimulations must be understood as coherent patterns. Gestalt principles allow sensory inputs to be processed as organized, meaningful wholes, which reduces the cognitive load compared to processing fragmented information. Studies show that Gestalt-based stimuli are processed with less mental effort and lead to faster and more accurate responses [49]. Looking back to the Bayesian framework, which aims to maximize the Bayesian posterior probability, it means that the brain is trying to minimize the cost to process the information. Gestalt percepts leverage the regularities of the environment that we are used to experiencing. The use of vibrotactile displays designed according to Gestalt principles would unlock cognitive resources for other tasks, while also enhancing reliability and speed of interpretation by reducing the cost to process the stimuli. Rapid information processing can thus lead to faster decision-making, which may help to maintain performance and security in an operational context.

4.1.5 *Learning capacities improvement.* One major limitation of vibrotactile interfaces is the difficulty for subjects to learn and memorize complex tactons compared to simpler ones that are more easily retained [6, 8]. By organizing tactile patterns according to principles of Prägnanz, complexity would be leveraged by the interrelation of simplicity and likelihood, which are known to enhance stimuli retention by being simple and calling upon likelihood [49]. Empirical studies suggest that for vision, working memory is facilitated by the organization of patterns appealing to Gestalt principles. Subjects are performing with more accuracy and faster reaction times in a change detection task for the condition in which the stimuli presented are partly organized with similarity [34] or when
they are grouped together as wholes [54]. Structural organization appears to reduce the cognitive load, which may facilitate the encoding and retrieval of information [3]. Therefore, the operator's ability to learn and remember a set of vibrotactile structured messages may be enhanced and modulated by tactons leveraging Gestalt-based organizations, as Gestalt structures in stimuli may be retained more easily by their conformity to priors already stored in memory, such as suggested within Bayesian theories [12, 49].

## 4.2 Gestalt contributions to material and sensory limits of vibrotactile interfaces

Interestingly, the Gestalt approach may also contribute to mitigate the limits and constraints of vibrotactile HCI devices. Actuators are rapidly limited in number and spacing by the apparatus possibilities. Designing spatially distributed vibrotactile feedback that remains both intelligible and efficient with a minimal number of actuators is a persistent challenge [45]. A Gestalt approach may offer a solution by appealing to spatial organizational laws. For example, grouping laws such as proximity or common fate can be used to evoke the perception of larger, coherent tactile patterns even when stimuli are generated from a small number of actuators. This may enable more efficient tactile displays by reducing material requirements while maintaining perceptual richness and clarity. Finally, in lower-resolution modalities such as touch [20], the design of simple but meaningful information is mandatory to be well-perceived. Moreover, Gestalt may benefit from the limited resolution of the vibrotactile modality by bringing richness to the stimulation. Instead of having poor, simple stimuli, Gestalt may help to produce more complex stimulations without requiring a high-resolution from the sensory input.

## 5 Conclusion

Taken together, we have argued that current signal-based approaches in HCI design for vibrotactile interfaces often fail to ensure that feedback is perceptually coherent and intelligible. Alternatively, we suggested that Gestalt theory offers a promising perception-driven framework to do so. Principles derived from Gestalt theory may enhance perceptual coherence, meaning, and stability, which improve the decision-making of operators, especially in critical situations. While having faced explanatory difficulties in moving from theory to experimental paradigms, Gestalt principles are still seen as relevant. The user experience design community is taking advantage of such perceptual processes and has developed Gestalt principles as design guidelines for vision [7, 43]. Recently, modern developments in perception study have renewed interest in Gestalt theory, aligning it with Bayesian and predictive coding models. This modern vision reposit Gestalt principles as priors, shaping stable and efficient interpretations. However, research on this theory remains mostly restricted to studies in vision, while other modalities, such as vibrotactile, have not received the same level of interest. We believe that exploring tactile modality may be appropriate for such display of information in rendering it more intelligible, particularly for situations where time constraint and cognitive efficiency are essential. To move beyond conceptual considerations, upcoming research should empirically test Gestalt theory for the perception of vibrotactile feedback.

Future works will aim to operationalize vibrotactile stimuli with insights from Gestalt theory. As a first step, we propose to test Gestalt principles in an experimental setup to assess whether Gestalt stimuli are perceived as more robust and stable in ambiguous situation than stimulus design that do not follow them. By testing such principles as structural laws for patterns displayed, we aim to create stimuli that evoke stronger perceptual organization and test their intelligibility compared to control stimuli lacking these qualities. Thereby, we could assess parameters to modulate in the design of vibrotactile interfaces to build tactons that would arouse Gestalt tendencies. This first experimental work will help to determine if these patterns are meaningful and coherently perceived. In addition, we could test how these aspects are supporting performance under cognitively loaded, time constrained, and ambiguous environments, allowing quantitative measures of intelligibility and evaluating usability for real-life implementation.

By bridging Gestalt theory of perception and tactile interface design, we aim to contribute to the development of perceptually coherent and effective vibrotactile devices, especially for a use in highly demanding environments where effectiveness and intelligibility are required and critical to prevent hazardous outcomes.

## Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the PhD grant from the Fédération ENAC ISAE-SUPAERO ONERA, Université de Toulouse, 31000, Toulouse, France.

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