• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.393-402
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• 2005

Subjective touch sensation for Korean traditional silk fabrics was evaluated, in order to compare tactile sensory aspects of Korean and American subjects and to determine mechanical properties of the fabrics affecting the sensation psychophysically. Eight aspects of touch sensation including hardness, smoothness, coarseness, coolness, pliability, crispness, heaviness, and thickness were rated by semantic deferential scale. The mechanical properties of fabrics were measured by Kawabata Evaluation System (KES). Both of Koreans and Americans showed fairly similarities to each other in subjective smoothness, coarseness, and crispness. On the contrary, as for coolness and pliability, Koreans were found as feeling the silk fabrics more sensitively than Americans were in that they rated some of modified leno fabrics as very cool and stiff in touch. Coolness and pliability by Koreans were affected mainly by surface and bending properties while those by Americans were determined mostly by compressional and tensile characteristics as well as sulfate properties