Eye and Head Response as Indicators of Attention Cue Effectiveness

Abstract

This study examined whether eye and head responses can be used to evaluate attention cue effectiveness. The subjects' tasks were to complete a centrally-located tracking task while periodically responding to cues to identify targets at four peripheral locations. Five directional cues were evaluated: visual symbol, coded sound, speech cue, three dimensional (3-D) sound and 3-D speech (the 3-D cues appeared to emanate from the peripheral locations). The results showed significant performance differences in eye and head reaction time, as well as peripheral target task completion time, as a function of cue modality. Since these relatively nonobtrusive measures were as sensitive to cue modality as the peripheral task completion time, these results suggest that eye and head reaction time can be used in evaluations addressing the effectiveness of attention cues.