Citation

Thomas JC, Congleton JJ, Huchingson RD, Whiteley JR, Rodrigues CC. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 1991; 8(1): 103-114.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Eight males and eight females participated in a series of simulated 40-minute automobile driving sessions. During each trial, participants sat in one of three contemporary automobile seats or a prototype based on a neutral posture design. Dependent variables were general subjective comfort, subjective body part/area discomfort and performance. General subjective comfort was found to be sensitive to differences between seat types. Females were generally less comfortable in the seats than males, suggesting that the seats better satisfied male than female requirements. Body part discomfort evaluations, for the areas in contact with the seat, were responsive to differences between seat types. Driver performance scores were responsive to gender but not to seat type; female scores were statistically less than those of males and may have been due to the fact that females were generally less comfortable in the suite of seats studied than were males. Correlation analyses indicated that perceptions of general comfort were strongly influenced by comfort experienced in the lower back areas. Driver performance may have been related to perceptions of general comfort due to seat type.