Sensation magnitude of vibrotactile stimuli

Abstract

A systematic investigation of the subjective magnitude of vibrotaction was undertaken to: (1) determine the growth of sensation as a function of stimulus intensity; (2) establish contours of equal subjective magnitude; and (3) compare over a wide range of frequency and intensity the psychophysical methods of direct scaling and intensity matching. The results show that the data obtained by direct scaling are comparable to the data obtained by interfrequency matching. The subjective magnitude function is a power function with a slope of about 0.89 for frequencies up to 350 Hz. Near threshold the growth of sensation is proportional to the physical intensity. Contours of equal subjective magnitude for vibration across 10 frequencies and at 11 levels of intensity are given. © 1969 Psychonomic Society, Inc.