Empirical Study on Stereotype for Burner-Control Relationship of Four-Stove Gas Range for Koreans

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to empirically investigate population stereotype of burner-control linkage of four-stove gas range for Koreans. Background: The previous studies" results for gas range stereotypes were different depending upon methods adopted, i.e., whether using questionnaires, computer simulation or physical models. It is known that the physical model experiment should not be methodologically replaced by the computer simulation or paper-and-pencil tests. Stereotype of gas range for Koreans was surveyed based on questionnaires, but has not been dealt with by using physical models. Method: An experiment was conducted to investigate stereotype of four-burner gas range, in which 32 subjects participated and a real gas range available in the market was bought and used. Four types of burner-control linkage were used as independent variable, and reaction time as dependent variable. Results: ANOVA revealed that four types of burner-control linkage and subjects" gender were not significant on reaction time. Duncan"s multiple range test showed that reaction times for type III was significantly lower than those for the other three types of burner-control linkage(α=0.05). Conclusion: It is concluded based on the results of this study that stereotype of gas range for Koreans is type III. This is in agreement with results of existing studies using questionnaire survey, while different from those based on physical models. Application: The results of this study would be useful as an ergonomic guideline when designing gas ranges or similar equipments for minimizing operation errors.<BR><BR>