Auditory Spatial Facilitation of Visual Search Performance: Effect of Cue Precision and Distractor Density

Abstract

Two experiments examined auditory spatial facilitation of visual search performance under conditions varying in auditory cue precision and visual distractor density. The auditory cue was spatially coincided with the target, was displaced from the target by 6°, or was uninformative. Distractors were manipulated globally (throughout the field) and locally (within 6.5° of the target) separately at densities of 0%, 20%, and 80%. In Experiment 1, auditory cue precision was constant and distractor densities varied within a trial block; in Experiment 2, auditory precision varied and distractor densities were constant within a trial block. Coincident auditory cues minimized local and global distractor effects in both experiments, suggesting that auditory spatial cues facilitate both target localization and identification. The effectiveness of displaced auditory cues depended on cue reliability: In some conditions, displaced cues caused higher mean search latencies than did centered cues, indicating that participants were unable to ignore inaccurate auditory stimuli. Actual or potential applications of this research include virtual audio environments and auditory displays in cockpits.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Begault, D. R. (1993). Head-up auditory displays for traffic collision avoidance system advisories: A preliminary investigation. Human Factors, 35, 707–717.

Begault, D. R. (1995). Head-up auditory display research at NASA Ames Research Center. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting (pp. 114–118). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Doll, T. J. , & Hanna, T. E. (1997). Directional cuing effects in auditory recognition. In R. H. Gilkey & T. R. Anderson (Eds.), Binaural and spatial hearing in real and virtual environments (pp. 377–397). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Drury, C. G. , & Clement, M. R. (1978). The effect of area, density, and number of background characters on visual search. Human Factors, 20, 597–602.

Fisher, H. G. , & Freedman, S. J. (1968). The role of the pinna in auditory localization. Journal of Auditory Research, 8, 15–26.

Frens, M. A. , Van Opstal, A. J. , & Van der Willigen, R. F. (1995). Spatial and temporal factors determine auditory-visual interaction in human saccadic eye movements. Perception and Psychophysics, 57, 802–816.

Fujawa, G. E. , & Strybel, T. Z. (1997). The effects of cue informativeness and signal amplitude on auditory spatial facilitation of visual performance. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 41st Annual Meeting (pp. 556–560). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Makous, J. C. , & Middlebrooks, J. C. (1990). Two-dimensional sound localization by human listeners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 87, 2188–2210.

McKinley, R. L. , D'Angelo, W. R. , Haas, M. W. , Perrott, D. R. , Nelson, W. T. , Hettinger, L. J. , & Brickman, B. J. (1995). An initial study of the effects of three-dimensional auditory cueing on visual target detection. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting (pp. 119–123). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

10.

McKinley, R. L. , & Ericson, M. A. (1997). Flight demonstration of a 3-D auditory display. In R. H. Gilkey & T. R. Anderson (Eds.), Binaural and spatial hearing in real and virtual environments (pp. 683–699). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

11.

Middlebrooks, J. C. , & Green, D. M. (1991). Sound localization by human listeners. Annual Review of Psychology, 42, 135–159.

12.

Perrott, D. R. , Cisneros, J. , McKinley, R. L. , & D'Angelo, W. R. (1995). Aurally aided detection and identification of visual targets. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting (pp. 104–108). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

13.

Perrott, D. R. , Cisneros, J. , McKinley, R. L. , & D'Angelo, W. R. (1996). Aurally aided visual search under virtual and free-field listening conditions. Human Factors, 38, 702–715.

14.

Perrott, D. R. , & Saberi, K. (1990). Minimum audible angle thresholds for sources varying in both elevation and azimuth. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, 87, 1728–1731.

15.

Perrott, D. R. , Saberi, K. , Brown, K. , & Strybel, T. Z. (1990). Auditory psychomotor coordination and visual search performance. Perception and Psychophysics, 48, 214–226.

16.

Perrott, D. R. , Sadralodabai, T. , Saberi, K. , & Strybel, T. Z. (1991). Aurally aided visual search in the central visual field: Effects of visual load and visual enhancement of the target. Human Factors, 33, 389–400.

17.

Strybel, T. Z. , Boucher, J. M. , Fujawa, G. E. , & Volp, C. S. (1995). Auditory spatial cueing in visual search tasks: Effects of amplitude, contrast and duration. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting (pp. 109–113). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

18.

Strybel, T. Z. , & Perrott, D. R. (1993, November). Auditory facilitation of visual search performance: Serial or parallel processing. Presented at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Washington, D.C.

19.

Wenzel, E. M. , Wightman, F. L. , & Foster, S. H. (1988). A virtual display system for conveying three-dimensional acoustic information. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 32nd Annual Meeting (pp. 86–90). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

20.

Wightman,F., L. , & Kistler, D. J. (1989). Headphone simulation of free-field listening: I. Stimulus synthesis. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 85, 858–867.

21.

Williams, L. G. (1973). Studies of extrafoveal discrimination and detection. In Committee on Vision Division of Behavioral Sciences and National Research Council (Eds.), Visual search (pp. 77–92). Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.