- Author
- Schwalm, N. D. | Pearson, R. G.
- Title
- Exploratory Study of Human Detection of Fire Cues in Simulated Fire Situations as a Function of Perceived Danger.
- Coporate
- North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh
- Sponsor
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Contract
- NBS-GRANT-DA0012
- Keywords
- human beings | fire behavior | human behavior | fire detection
- Identifiers
- exploratory laboratory simulation study
- Abstract
- An exploratory laboratory simulation study was conducted to test the hypothesized relationship between perceived danger of fires, and time to detection of fire cues. Twenty-seven male and twenty-seven female subjects were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups. Group 1 saw a burnt wall with blackened and exposed wires and were given to believe that a fire accident had once occurred in their immediate environment, Group 2 saw the same wall but also saw a smoke detector which they were told was installed for their complete protection, and Group 3 saw no such burnt wall. Subjects were then required to detect four fire related stimuli and two nonfire related stimuli presented to them.