title: The relative discomfort of noise and vibration: effects of stimulus duration.
abstract: How noise discomfort and vibration discomfort depend on duration has not previously been compared. For five durations (2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 s), the subjective equivalence of noise and vibration was investigated with all 49 combinations of 7 levels of noise and 7 magnitudes of whole-body vertical vibration. The rates of increase in discomfort with increasing duration were similar for noise and vibration, whereas they are currently assumed to be 3 dB per doubling of noise duration and 1.5 dB per doubling of vibration duration. The discomfort caused by low levels of noise was masked by high magnitudes of vibration, and the discomfort caused by low magnitudes of vibration was masked by high levels of noise. As stimuli durations increased from 2 to 32 s, the influence of vibration on the judgement of noise discomfort decreased, whereas the influence of noise on the judgement of vibration discomfort was unchanged.
authors.affiliation: a Human Factors Research Unit, Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton , Southampton SO17 1BJ , UK.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Griffin
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013997:Time Factors; D014732:Vibration / Q000009:adverse effects*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: discomfort; duration; noise; vibration