A PARAMETRIC INVESTIGATION OF RIDE QUALITY RATING SCALES

The relative merits of various category scales for the prediction of human discomfort response to vibration and the mathematical relationships that allow for transformations of subjective data from one scale to another scale were determined. A total of 16 category scales were studied and these represented various parametric combinations of polarity, scale type, and number of scalar points. Sixteen subject groups were used and each subject group evaluated its comfort/discomfort to vertical sinusoidal vibration using one of the rating scales. The passenger ride quality apparatus which can expose six subjects simultaneously to predetermined vibrations was utilized. The vibration stimuli were composed of repeats of selected sinusoidal frequencies applied at each of nine peak floor acceleration levels. A higher degree of reliability and discriminability was generally obtained from unipolar continuous type scales containing either seven or nine scalar points as opposed to the other scales investigated.

• Corporate Authors:

  Langley Research Center

  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  Hampton, VA  United States  23665
• Authors:
  • Dempsey, T K
  • Coates, G D
  • Leatherwood, J D
• Publication Date: 1976-9

Media Info

• Pagination: 37 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Flight simulators; Motion perception; Passenger aircraft; Passenger comfort; Physiological aspects; Ratings; Ride quality; Riding qualities
• Uncontrolled Terms: Flight simulation
• Old TRIS Terms: Physiological factors; Vibration perception
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Passenger Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00147008
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: NASA-TM-X-73946
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 16 1977 12:00AM