Identification of Vehicle Instrument-Panel Controls

The purpose of the study was to determine which of three symbols would best represent each of 15 instrument-panel controls. The subjects were required to experience a “pretend” drive in an automobile simulator, the major element of which was a control panel containing the appropriate 15 symbols. For seven of the controls, one symbol was clearly the best of the three. For four of the controls, performance was optimal for all three symbols, while none of the symbols sufficed for the remaining four controls.