Effects of displacement magnitude and direction of auditory cues on auditory spatial facilitation of visual search.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to examine the effects of cue error on auditory spatial facilitation (ASF) of visual search.

BACKGROUND

ASF is the reduction in time needed to locate and identify a visual target when an auditory cue is presented at the location of the target. Although ASF has been shown to occur when the auditory cue coincides with the target location, it is important to determine whether facilitatory effects are also evident when the cue is displaced.

METHOD

Participants performed a visual search task in the presence of an auditory cue that was presented at the center of the screen (uninformative), at the location of the target (accurate), or displaced up to 12 degrees from the target horizontally or vertically.

RESULTS

Generally, displaced auditory cues reduced search times as compared with a condition in which the cue was uninformative. When the displacement was always along a single spatial dimension, the cue was as effective as a coincident cue if it was within the local visual area. However, when the dimension along which the cue was displaced varied randomly, the cue did not necessarily reduce search time and hurt performance when the visual search task was difficult.

CONCLUSION

Designers of virtual audio displays should be aware that auditory cue accuracy will be affected by the difficulty of the visual task and the operators' knowledge of cue precision and reliability.

APPLICATION

Findings from this study can be applied to the design of multimodal interfaces and augmented or virtual environments.