The use of an intensity matching technique to evaluate human response to whole-body vibration.

Abstract Previous whole-body vibration intensity matching experiments have been reviewed and some of the different experimental methods and findings are discussed. An experiment has been conducted to investigate ‘ between ’ and ‘ within ’ subject variability in such experiments and to determine the effect of varying the frequency of the standard vibration against which other frequencies are matched. Although subjects had only a low confidence in their matches the ‘ within ’ subject variability was low and much smaller than ‘ between ’ subject variability. As the frequency separation of the two vibrations to be matched became greater the subject variability increased. Although only relatively small differences were found between the results obtained with different frequency standards it was concluded that a 10 Hz sinusoid was to be preferred for future experimentation. The differences found between the responses of individual subjects emphasize the need for a careful consideration of individual differences...