The definition and measurement of annoyance varies between studies. This paper is concerned mainly with measurement topics, e.g., graphical versus magnitude estimations or verbal scales; the effect of mentioning frames of reference with respect to (a) exposure time, (b) exposure area, or (c) range of possible degrees of annoyance/exposure. With verbal response scales, the number of response steps varies between 2 and 7; some studies simply provide for categorical judgments, others provide for nearly equidistant verbal steps—in order to allow for parametric treatments of data. In this context, an international study is reported which intended to gain comparable response scales for different languages. The decision criteria used for selecting 5 steps on the total range between the lowest and the highest possible degree of annoyance are discussed, and the use of certain verbal modifiers in English, German, and French are proposed. Together with instructions for mentioning the frames of reference, these modifiers should be able to get comparable annoyance scores in field studies.
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