The perception of comfort and discomfort was investigated using a tactile knife-handle sorting task. Sixteen participants (13 males, 3 females) volunteered to perform the study. Due to the preliminary nature ofthis research the participants were acquaintances ofthe researchers. The participants were randomly assigned to sorting condition of either Comfort or Discomfort. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was utilized to examine the structural perceptual equivalence of comfort/discomfort conditions on the sorting task. Results indicate that there is little difference in dimensional solutions for comfort versus discomfort, furthermore post hoc inspection ofthe dimensions and stimuli suggest the participants are using handle length (Dim 1), handle circumference (Dim 2), and surface texture (Dim 3) to group the knife handles. Support for a more in-depth study of comfort/discomfort incorporating attribute ratings and implications for designers are discussed.

Whether comfort and discomfort are part of the same continuum or separate continua has been disputed for a long time. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that mediate comfort and discomfort. Fifty-eight University ofNebraska -Lincoln students (40 females, 18 males) volunteered to participate in the study. Participants took part in anthropometric measurements, sorting tasks, and attribute ratings in either the Comfort or Discomfort condition. Antbropometric measures revealed males and females were relatively equivalent and therefore were not separated in further analyses. MDS supported the use of a four-dimensional solution to depict the similarities and differences among the sixteen gloves for both comfort and discomfort conditions. Further analyses of the regression weights revealed that for some dimensions participants used different criteria for comfort and discomfort judgments. While dimensional analyses and stimuli positions indicated comfort and discomfort are part of the same continuum, attribute analyses provided conflicting evidence that "same continuum" descriptions of comfort and discomfort are too simplistic. 5-95