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Most earcons do not interfere with spoken passage comprehension
Author(s) -
Bonebright Terri L.,
Nees Michael A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.1457
Subject(s) - psychology , cued speech , task (project management) , orientation (vector space) , comprehension , active listening , cognitive psychology , communication , computer science , geometry , mathematics , management , economics , programming language
A cross‐modal dual attention experiment was completed by 198 undergraduates in three blocks that each consisted of an orientation task and a concurrent listening task. For the orientation task, participants located regions on an LCD that were cued by speech or one of four types of symbolic auditory cues (i.e. earcons); the concurrent task required participants to listen to and answer questions about GRE sample test passages. Results indicated the orientation task had no effect on comprehension of the passages compared to a passage‐only control for four of the five auditory cue types. All auditory cues resulted in high performance for the orientation task, with speech and complex sounds exhibiting the highest performance. Implications for auditory display design and for assistive technologies for visually impaired persons are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.