Combined Effects of Noise and Vibration on Human Tracking Performance and Response Time
Abstract
Vibration has been shown to be the primary cause of performance impairment in studies of the combined effects of noise and vibration on human tracking performance. Noise has had little consistent effect when presented alone, and has added little or not at all to the impairment produced by vibration. In two studies with heat included as a third stressor, vibration presented alone had a slightly more adverse effect on tracking performance than combined heat, noise and vibration. In the present experiment, 12 subjects were exposed to lower noise and vibration levels for a longer period of time than used previously. Noise had no significant effects on tracking performance, while vibration adversely affected both dimensions of the tracking task. On both horizontal and vertical tracking, vibration combined with 60 dB noise produced greater impairment than vibration combined with 100 dB noise. These results parallel previous findings from studies of combined noise, heat, and vibration, and give support to a subtractive interaction interpretation of the combined effects of noise and vibration on human tracking performance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1973
- Accession Number
- AD0759329
Entities
People
- C. S. Harris
- Henry C. Sommer
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory