The Determination of Equal Comfort Zones for Whole-body Vibration

On the assumption that equal ratings along a rating line indicate an equivalence of subjective sensation, equal sensation contours were obtained from 12 subjects who rated 75 vibration stimuli of 11 different frequencies. In a second experiment, the stimuli used in Experiment I were presented to 14 further subjects, who were required to ascribe semantic ‘ comfort ’ labels to each stimulus in turn. Zones of equal comfort were thus produced by comparing the average ratings for each stimulus obtained in Experiment I with the labels attached to them in Experiment II. The uses, and pitfalls, of this method for determining the comfort level of transport vehicles are critically discussed.