DISCRIMINATION AMONG SIGN AND LABEL WARNING SIGNAL WORDS

Signal words are commonly used in warnings to quickly communicate pote ntial hazards. Current standards and guidelines define the terms DANGE R, WARNING, CAUTION, and; NOTICE as denoting decreasing hazard levels, respectively. This study examined whether definitions assigned to the se words coincide with people's understanding of them. Seventy-two par ticipants attempted to match published definitions to the terms. Addit ionally, they rated the terms on various dimensions (e.g., hazardousne ss, understandability). The results showed that people differentiate D ANGER and NOTICE but less clearly discriminate between WARNING and CAU TION. The term DEADLY, a proposed higher level signal word, was percei ved as connoting the greatest hazard. Implications for warning design are discussed. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.