An Evaluation of Four Methods of Monitoring Simultaneous Primary and Secondary Voice Messages

Abstract

Four methods of monitoring simultaneous primary and secondary voice messages were investigated in high and low ambient noise environments. Two of the methods used a single earpiece headset and wall speaker, and two methods used a dual earpiece headset with either the primary message in one ear and the secondary message in the other ear, or the primary message in both ears and the secondary message in a single ear. A realistic script and operational setting were used to test the conditions using 54 trained subjects. The dual-headset methods were found to be significally superior to the headset/speaker method in most scoring categories. No significant differences were found between noise levels. The findings are compared with previous research on multimessage monitoring.

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