Abstract
Natural aural directional cueing in the cockpit should relieve the demands placed on the visual modality, reduce display clutter and alleviate cognitive attention needed to process and extract meaning from coded formats. This experiment compared the effectiveness of three-dimensional (3-D) auditory cues to conventional visual and auditory methods of directing visual attention to peripheral targets. Five directional cues were evaluated: visual symbol, coded aural tone, speech cue, 3-D tone (white noise appearing to emanate from peripheral locations) and 3-D speech (speech cue appearing to emanate from peripheral locations). The results showed significant performance differences as a function of directional cue type in peripheral target task completion time, as well as eye and head reaction time. Results, such as these, will help improve the application of directional sound in operational cockpits.
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