Research on Chinese perceptions of implied hazard for warning signal words and surrounding shapes based on computer experiments

Abstract

Safety is essential to the society and our life. Its importance is extremely significant in manufacturing and service sectors. Warning signal words and surrounding shapes can convey valuable information about danger and have been used for safety management in practice. Evaluation score given by respondents is once the single indicator to identify their perceptions of implied hazard for warning signal words and surrounding shapes, with questionnaire as the traditional tool. In this paper, we conduct computer experiments to collect data on arousal strengthen and reaction time of signal words and surrounding shapes of Chinese population. Taking reaction time as an indicator and comparing Chinese signal words with English are both innovative. The results indicate that Chinese signal words are not significant different from English signal words in evaluation scores, but people take more time to react to English signal words. DANGER is still the most effective word; CAUTION the least, and WARNING the mediate. But the differences among them are not consistent with the previous research. INVERTED TRIANGLE is the most effective surrounding shape. According to the linear regression results, language, surrounding shapes, signal words and gender affect evaluation scores, while language and surrounding shapes affect reaction time.