This study aims to investigate test-retest reliability or reproducibility of the paper-pencil test for investigating stereotypes of seven principal controls of passenger cars. The controls include wiper, head light, high beam, door window, ignition key, door key and door lock. Sixty two college-aged students participated in the paper-pencil tests and the tests were conducted twice with an in-between period of 4 weeks. The results showed that the stereotypes of motion-directions for the seven controls by the two paper-pencil tests were the same, and that the percentage agreements between two tests by subjects were ranged from 60.0% to 80.6%. There was a weak linear relationship between averaged rates of responses for the stereotypes of motion-directions for the seven controls and percentage agreements by subjects. Based on these results, it is concluded that the paper-pencil test collects reliable or reproducible data on the stereotypes of motion-directions for passenger cars’ controls within four weeks.

This study is designed to measure the impact of a car’s horse power and torque - aspects related to performance among various factors that affect consumer purchase decision-on consumers when buying a car. The research of the results can be interpreted as indicating that the premise, “The impact of torque and horsepower on consumer purchase decision is not significant,” is true.

The purposes of this study are to survey stereotypes of control-display relationships for seven principal controls in passenger cars using the paper-pencil and hardware tests, and to examine stereotype strength of the paper-pencil test through comparing the stereotypes for the controls derived by the two methods. Ninety two and 60 college-aged students participated in the paper-pencil test and the real car simulation of the hardware test, respectively. There are dominant motion-directions for all controls in the paper-pencil test, while in the hardware test, there are dominant motion-directions for six controls including head light, high beam, door window, ignition key, door key and door lock controls. The stereotypes of motion-directions for six controls obtained by the paper-pencil test were the same as or similar to those by the hardware test. It was inferred from this that the congruence of the stereotypes by the two methods might be attributed to two simple motion-direction principles of 'clockwise for increase' and 'upward for increase.' Although it is known that the hardware test would be best for obtaining accurate stereotypes between controls and displays, this study implies that if the paper-pencil test is well designed, the paper-pencil test can produce the same results as the hardware test at low cost and without consuming time.

The aims of this study are to investigate stereotypes of motion-direction and real motion-directions for seven principal controls in passenger cars, and to compare the stereotypes and real motion-directions for the controls. The stereotypes were obtained by using questionnaire survey, in which 385 subjects participated. The real motion-direction data were gathered for 64 passenger cars including RVs and SUVs. The results showed that while there are dominant motion-directions for head light, door key and door lock controls, dominant motion-directions are not found for other controls investigated in this study. The stereotypes of motion-directions for seven controls obtained in this study were much different from those of the real data. Furthermore, the stereotypes for wiper, head light and high beam controls based on the questionnaire survey were opposite to the real motion-directions.