Psychophysical assessment of the perceived slipperiness of floor tile surfaces in a laboratory setting

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Abstract

Traditionally, studies assessing the “slipperiness” of walking surfaces have used various measurements of coefficient of friction. However, the psychophysical perception of “slipperiness” and the physical measurement of “friction” may be quite different. The purpose of this study was to determine the psychophysical elements of floor tile slipperiness. In the first experiment, subjects were tested with 23 floor tiles. The subjects were asked to compare a “standard” tile with a static coefficient of friction (COF) of .50 to the others varying along a measured continuum and report whether they thought each of the other tiles was more or less slippery. Contrary to the null hypothesis, the results showed a significant number of disagreements with the COF of certain tiles that tested at or near the range extremities. In the second experiment, subjects compared seven tiles and ranked them according to slipperiness using only visual, auditory, or tactile (sliding resistance) cues, individually. The results showed that tactile cues are the most sensitive to physical measurements of COF under the experimental conditions.

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H. Harvey Cohen is the owner and principal scientist/ consultant at Cohen and Associates. He received his PhD in Human Factors/Ergonomics from North Carolina State University in 1972. Prior to forming his own safety and human factors research and consulting firms in 1977, Dr. Cohen was a senior research scientist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Cincinnati, OH. Dr. Cohen has authored over 100 publications in the safety and human factors fields and is frequently called upon to provide forensic consulting and expert witness services in accident litigation cases, especially those involving slips/trips/missteps and falls, product defects, warnings, visibility, and behavioral expectations. Dr. Cohen is a certified professional ergonomist (CPE) and serves as a founding officer of the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics (BCPE).

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David M. Cohen is a research associate with Cohen and Associates in La Mesa, CA. He is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz where he majored in Psychology. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the California School of Professional Psychology in Fresno, CA.

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