This paper describes work carried out to investigate the selection of auditory icons within the domain of commercial motor vehicles. Auditory icons are representational sounds in that they have specific, stereotypical meanings. While typical non-verbal sounds are defined by their particular acoustic parameters, auditory icons are defined by the objects or actions that created the sounds. Previously, researchers have relied on expert opinion to assign meaning to auditory icons; however, problems have arisen when the experimenter-selected meanings did not agree with users' opinions. Attention was focused on the auditory icons' perceived meaning and perceived urgency in an attempt to reduce the influence of experimenter bias in the auditory icon selection process.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BegaultD. R. (1994). 3-D sound for virtual reality and multimedia. Boston: AP Professional.
2.
BuxtonW. (1989). Introduction to this special issue on nonspeech audio. Human Computer Interaction, 4(1), 1–9.
3.
DeatherageB. H. (1972). Auditory and other sensory forms of information presentation. In Van CottH. P.KinkadeR. G., Human engineering guide to equipment design (Revised Edition, pp. 123–160). Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office.
4.
EngenT. (1971). Psychophysics II: Scaling methods. In KlineJ.RiggsL., Woodworth and Schlosberg's Experimental Psychology (3rd ed., pp. 47–86). New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
5.
GaverW. W. (1986). Auditory icons: Using sound in computer interfaces. Human Computer Interaction, 2(2), 167–177.
6.
GaverW. W. (1994). Using and creating auditory icons. In KramerG., Auditory display (pp. 417–446). Reading, PA: Addison-Wesley.
7.
GaverW. W.SmithR. B.O'SheaT. (1991). Effective sounds in complex systems: The ARKola simulation. In Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Reaching Through Technology (CHI 1991) (pp. 85–90). New York: Association for Computing Machinery.
8.
GrahamR.HirstS. J.CarterC. (1995). Auditory icons for collision avoidance warnings. In Proceedings of the ITS America 1995 Annual Meeting (pp. 1057–1063). Washington, D. C.: ITS America.
9.
HaasE., (1993). Perceived urgency and detection time of multi-tone and frequency modulated warning signals and broadband noise. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA.
10.
HaasE.SchmidtJ. (1995). Auditory icons as warning and advisory signals in the U. S. Army Battlefield Combat Identification System (BCIS). In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting, (pp. 999–1004). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
11.
LeeS. E.RobinsonG. S.CasaliJ. G. (1997). Role of driver hearing in commercial motor vehicle operations: An evaluation of the FHWA hearing requirement. Task analysis (ISE Technical Report Number 9702; Audio Lab Number 5/13/97–2-HP). Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Auditory Systems Laboratory.
12.
MomtahanK.HetuR.TansleyB. (1993). Audibility and identification of auditory alarms in the operating room and intensive care unit. Ergonomics, 36(10), 1159–1176.
13.
MynattE. R. (1994) Auditory presentation of graphical user interfaces. In KramerG., Auditory display (pp. 533–555), Reading, PA: Addison-Wesley.
14.
PattersonR. D. (1982). Guidelines for auditory warning systems on civil aircraft (Civilian Aviation Authority Paper 82017). Cheltanham, England: Civil Aviation Authority, Airworthiness Division.
15.
PattersonR. D. (1989). Guidelines for the design of auditory warning sounds. Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, 11(5), 17–24.
16.
WilkinsP.MartinA. M. (1987). Hearing protection and warning sounds in industry — A review. Applied Acoustics, 21, 267–293.
17.
ZwislockiJ. J. (1983). Group and individual relationships between sensational magnitudes and their numerical estimates. Perception and Psychophysics, 33(5), 460–468.
