PSYCHOPHYSICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE PERCEIVED SLIPPERINESS OF FLOOR TILESURFACES IN A LABORATORY SETTING

Traditionally, studies assessing the ''slipperiness'' of walking surfa ces have used various measurements of coefficient of friction. However , the psychophysical perception of ''slipperiness'' and the physical m easurement of ''friction'' may be quite different. The purpose of this study was to determine the psychophysical elements of floor tile slip periness. In the first experiment, subjects were tested with 23 floor tiles. The subjects were asked to compare a ''standard'' tile with a s tatic coefficient of friction (COF) of .50 to the others varying along a measured continuum and report whether they thought each of the othe r 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 sec ond experiment, subjects compared seven tiles and ranked them accordin g to slipperiness using only visual, auditory, or tactile (sliding res istance) cues, individually. The results showed that tactile cues are the most sensitive to physical measurements of COF under the experimen tal conditions.