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.

Auditory, tactile, and multisensory cues facilitate search for dynamic visual stimuli

“…Thus, one might argue that the uninformative cues were actually more closely aligned with the spatial location of the visual targets than were the informative cues. Rudmann and Strybel (1999) found that the search latencies for visual targets were significantly higher when far from the participants' body. On the basis of this line of reasoning, the facilitation of participants' visual search performance should be larger in the latter case (i.e., when the cue and target originate from the same distal region of space).…”

“…However, the limitations of screen size, clutter, and human auditory localization ability do not appear to hinder the potential advantages of spatially colocalized auditory cues under such conditions. Rudmann and Strybel (1999) investigated whether the presentation of auditory cues that were spatially coincident, displaced by 6º, or else spatially uninformative with regard to the location of the visual target would facilitate participants' visual search performance. d Although spatially coincident auditory cues were found to be most effective in terms of reducing participants' visual search latencies, the displaced auditory cues were n still effective in terms of enhancing visual search when compared with performance in the uninformative-cue condition.…”

Cross-modal associations between vision, touch, and audition influence visual search through top-down attention, not bottom-up capture

“…Auditory and tactile cues have also been shown to influence visual search. This has been shown when the auditory or tactile cue was spatially informative (Bolia, D'Angelo, & McKinley, 1999;Jones, Gray, Spence, & Tan, 2008;Rudmann & Strybel, 1999), when the auditory or tactile cue was temporally synchronous with a change in color of the target (Ngo & Spence, 2010;Van der Burg, Cass, Olivers, Theeuwes, & Alais, 2010;Van der Burg, Olivers, Bronkhorst, & Theeuwes, 2008b, Van der Burg, Olivers, Bronkhorst, & Theeuwes, 2009Zannoli, Cass, Mamassian, & Alais, 2012) and when the auditory cue was semantically congruent with the target object (Iordanescu, Grabowecky, Franconeri, Theeuwes, & Suzuki, 2010;Iordanescu, Gravowecky, & Suzuki, 2011;Iordanescu, Guzman-Martinez, Grabowecky, & Suzuki, 2008).…”

Does the Perceived Urgency of Auditory Signals Affect Auditory Spatial Cueing in Visual Search Tasks?

“…It has been shown repeatedly, (e.g., Rudmann & Strybel, 1999) that the presence of a simple auditory cue spatially coincident with a visual target can reduce the time required to locate and identify a visual target. The magnitude of the search time reduction depends on many visual factors such as search field size, target distance and distractor density.…”