Calibration of subjective scaling responses

Subjective scaling is being used more frequently to asses the lighting characteristics of interiors, although there has been little attempt to validate the responses that subjects provide. It is argued that investigators using subjective scaling should calibrate their subjects in some way because idiosyncratic responses can alter averaged scaling estimates. In this experiment task contrast was varied and estimates of visual performance (speed and accuracy) were collected simultaneously with subjective responses on seven-point semantic scales. Subjects exhibited sterotypical behaviour on the performance measures; their scaling responses were quite idiosyncratic, although some subjective responses to the experimental parameters varied like the performance responses. It is argued that visual performance measures could be used to calibrate subjective scaling responses.On utilise de plus en plus l'\ue9chelle d'\ue9valuation subjective pour d\ue9terminer les caract\ue9ristiques de l'\ue9clairage des int\ue9rieurs, bien que peu d'efforts aient \ue9t\ue9 faits pour valider les r\ue9ponses des sujets. On soutient que les chercheurs qui utilisent l'\ue9chelle d'\ue9valuation subjective devraient \ue9talonner d'une facon ou d'une autre leurs sujets, les idiosyncrasies pouvant modifier les r\ue9sultats moyens. Dans la pr\ue9sente exp\ue9rience, la t\ue2che est soumise \ue0 un contraste variable, et la performance visuelle (vitesse et pr\ue9cision) est \ue9valu\ue9e en m\ueame temps que le sujet r\ue9pond subjectivement suivant une \ue9chelle s\ue9mantique en sept points. Les performances des sujets soumis \ue0 l'exp\ue9rience sont st\ue9r\ue9otyp\ue9es; leurs r\ue9ponses d\ue9notent des idiosyncrasies, m\ueame si certaines \ue9valuations subjectives des param\ue8tres exp\ue9rimentaux varient dans le m\ueame sens que les performances. On avance que des mesures de performances visuelles peuvent \ueatre utilis\ue9es pour \ue9talonner des \ue9valuations subjectives.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye