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Listen Out! Behavioural and Subjective Responses to Verbal Warnings
Author(s) -
Ljungberg Jessica K.,
Parmentier Fabrice B. R.,
Hughes Robert W.,
Macken William J.,
Jones Dylan M.
Publication year - 2012
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.2818
Subject(s) - psychology , valence (chemistry) , recall , emotional valence , cognitive psychology , task (project management) , cognition , social psychology , neuroscience , economics , physics , management , quantum mechanics
Summary Both the behavioural and subjective impacts of single‐word spoken warnings were examined. Behaviourally, the effect of infrequently occurring warnings was studied through their disruptive impact on a visually presented serial recall task. In separate experiments, ratings of the same words were elicited. Experiment 1 showed a localized effect of the warnings (on the item immediately following the warning), with the urgently intoned warning having a greater disruptive effect than its valence (emotional content). Valence and intonation (urgency) did not interact. The performance changes were mirrored in the ratings of the words. Experiment 2 showed no systematic effect on performance of either the action‐relatedness of the word or its lexicality. There was, however, a systematic effect of lexicality but not action‐relatedness on ratings. The study demonstrates the feasibility of using objective performance methods to establish the likely effects of verbal warnings and the utility of using such methods for the design of alarm systems. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.