Evaluation of Stevens’ power law exponents for whole–body vibration by psychophysical methods

Several advantages stimulate research to knowledge of the mathematical relationship between the physical and perceptual worlds. The discomfort of human subjects exposed to a wide range of vertical mechanical shocks, sinusoidal vibration, road vibration, random vibration have been studied experimentally. Experimental investigations on difference thresholds for the perception of vibration can assist the optimisation of comfort in transport. Researches have suggested methods to evaluate how sound and vibration influence opinions of living, working, and travelling environments. Psychophysical test methods, vibration stimulus range and test participant estimate the Stevens' power law exponent achieved from subjective testing. Using both the absolute method of magnitude estimation and the relative method of magnitude estimation, many Authors have obtained the exponents for scaling the subjective magnitude of sound. However, the relative method of magnitude estimation has been used the scaling to evaluate the subjective magnitude of vibration. The recommendations of the International Standards Organization on human vibration exposure are critically compared with the results of other researches.