| Abstract: | Used the individual differences scaling model of multidimensional scaling to explore the dimensions of thermal pain. 20 male undergraduates made 66 similarity judgments to all pairs of 12 different thermal stimulus intensities ranging from zero to noxious. Results reveal a 2-dimensional group stimulus space. The major dimension ordered the stimuli with respect to their intensity. This quantitative, strength-of-sensation dimension may be interpreted as indicating how weak or strong a stimulus feels, apart from any secondary qualities of warmth or pain. The 2nd dimension was related to the qualitative aspects of the stimuli and contained 2 attributes: (1) a pain attribute ranging from just detectable warmth to painful and (2) a warm–hot attribute running from just detectable warmth to hot. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
