The Physiological Experimental Study on the Effect of Different Color of Safety Signs on a Virtual Subway Fire Escape—An Exploratory Case Study of Zijing Mountain Subway Station

Na Chen, Ming Zhao, Kun Gao and Jun Zhao
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Na Chen: School of Mechanics and Safety Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Ming Zhao: School of Mechanics and Safety Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Kun Gao: School of Mechanics and Safety Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Jun Zhao: School of Mechanics and Safety Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 16, 1-19

Abstract: Safety signs play a very important role in people’s evacuation during emergencies. In order to explore the appropriate color for subway safety signs, four safety signs of different color combinations are designed, and the virtual reality, eye-tracking technology, and physiological indicator measurement are used in a virtual subway fire escape experiment. A total of 96 participants with equal distribution in gender and four different color combination groups were recruited. Participants’ eye-tracking and physiological data (heart rate, skin conductance) were real-time recorded through ErgoLAB V3.0 in the whole experiment. The relationship between Color_of_safety_sign and escape performance, eye-tracking indicators, and physiological indicators is discussed respectively through SPSS. The results show that “Green and black” group has the best evacuation escape performance, low cognitive load, high search efficiency on safety signs, and the highest stress level and immersion and “Green and black” can be the most appropriate color for safety sign. This research is of certain significance for improving the function of subway fire-fighting infrastructure and the resilience of the metro system. Moreover, it can provide references and advice on risk management, emergency evacuation, and so on.

Keywords: safety sign color; subway fire escape; virtual reality; physiological experiment; eye-tracking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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