Background Sound Impairs Interruption Recovery in Dynamic Task Situations: Procedural Conflict?

Hodgetts, Helen M.; Vachon, François; Tremblay, Sébastien

doi:10.1002/acp.2952

Cited by 33 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Although we cannot unequivocally link fixation time to the cognitive function of comprehending the alert, research into the so-called mind-eye hypothesis provides growing evidence that measures of oculometry can help inform us of underlying mental processes (e.g., Theeuwes, Belopolsky, & Olivers, 2009;Tremblay & Saint-Aubin, 2009;). In the current context, we made the assumption that time fixating the alert could be used to provide an indication of the time needed for participants to decide what action to take in order to make a response (Morrison, Marshall, Kelly, & Moore, 1997;Hodgetts et al, 2014;Poole & Ball, 2006). Since the designs were believed to be equally legible, we expected that fixation time on the alert would not differ as a function of notification type.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Attentional costs and failures in air traffic control notifications

et al. 2014

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Large display screens are common in supervisory tasks, meaning that alerts are often perceived in peripheral vision. Five air traffic control notification designs were evaluated in their ability to capture attention during an ongoing supervisory task, as well as their impact on the primary task. A range of performance measures, eye tracking, and subjective reports, showed that color, even animated, was less effective than movement, and notifications sometimes went unnoticed. Designs that drew attention to the notified aircraft by a pulsating box, concentric circles, or the opacity of the background resulted in faster perception and no missed notifications. However, the latter two designs were intrusive and impaired primary task performance, while the simpler animated box captured attention without an overhead cognitive cost. These results highlight the need for a holistic approach to evaluation, achieving a balance between the benefits for one aspect of performance against the potential costs for another.Keywords: Air traffic control, Visual notifications, Attentional capture, Detection, Eye movement Practitioner summaryWe performed a holistic examination of air traffic control notification designs regarding their ability to capture attention during an ongoing supervisory task. The combination of performance, eye-tracking, and subjective measurements demonstrated that the best design achieved a balance between attentional power and the overhead cognitive cost to primary task performance.

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Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Attentional costs and failures in air traffic control notifications

et al. 2014

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“…Although much is known about the impact of background sound on visual-verbal serial short-term memory (Hughes & Jones, 2001), little is known about whether, and how, background sound impairs memory for complex visual information (cf. Wais & Gazzaley, 2011) especially within applied settings (Hodgetts, Vachon, & Tremblay, 2014). This appears remiss especially in forensic settings since the auditory environment, being one component of multiple sources of environmental information, could potentially have an influence on the accuracy and therefore reliability of information recalled about a crime and its perpetrator(s) (Marsh et al, 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

The impact of irrelevant auditory facial descriptions on memory for target faces: implications for eyewitness memory

Marsh

Demaine

Bell

et al. 2015

Journal of Forensic Practice

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Purpose To investigate the potential susceptibility of eyewitness memory to the presence of extraneous background speech that comprises a description consistent with, or at odds with, a target face.Design/methodology/approach A between-participants design was deployed whereby participants viewed an unfamiliar target face either in the presence of quiet, extraneous to-beignored speech that comprised a verbal description that was congruent with the target face or to-be-ignored speech that comprised a verbal description that was incongruent with that face. After a short distractor task, participants were asked to describe the target face and to construct a composite of the face using PRO-fit software. Further participants rated the likeness of the composites to the target.Findings Recall of correct facial descriptors was facilitated by congruent to-be-ignored speech and inhibited by incongruent to-be-ignored speech as compared to quiet. Moreover, incorrect facial descriptors were reported more often in the incongruent speech condition as compared with the congruent speech and quiet conditions. Composites constructed after exposure to incongruent speech were rated as poorer likenesses to the target than those created after exposure to congruent speech and quiet. Whether congruent speech facilitated or impaired composite construction was found to depend on the distinctiveness of the target face. Practical implicationsThe results suggest that the nature of to-be-ignored background speech has powerful effects on the accuracy of information that is verbally reported from having witnessed a face. Incongruent speech appears to disrupt the recognition processes that underpin face construction while congruent speech may have facilitative or detrimental effects on this process, depending on the distinctiveness of the target face.Originality/Value This is one of the first studies to demonstrate that extraneous speech can produce adverse effects on the recall and recognition of complex visual information: in this case the appearance of a human face.

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“…This is perhaps because the tone was the only auditory stimulus played during the experiment, and so having established a basic effect of the tone, further study would need to determine whether the same benefits could be observed within a more complex auditory environment. Many command and control settings are characterized by background sounds and conversation between other personnel that might be critical to the state of the mission, but that can nonetheless be disruptive to other features of the task (Hodgetts et al, 2014). Nonetheless, our study showed that multisensory integration is a promising avenue to support change detection and decision making in complex and dynamic environments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…The experiment used the Simulated Combat Control System (S-CCS) microworld (see Hodgetts, Vachon, & Tremblay, 2014;Vachon et al, 2012) run on a PC. This microworld provides a functional simulation of threat evaluation and combat power management processes (i.e., response planning, execution, and monitoring) that can also be generalized to other command and control situations.…”

Section: Microworldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pip and Pop

Chamberland

Hodgetts

Vallières

et al. 2016

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

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Dynamic and complex command and control situations often require the timely recognition of changes in the environment in order to detect potentially malicious actions. Change detection can be challenging within a continually evolving scene, and particularly under multitasking conditions whereby attention is necessarily divided between several subtasks. On-screen tools can assist with detection (e.g., providing a visual record of changes, ensuring that none are overlooked), however, in a high workload environment, this may result in information overload to the detriment of the primary task. One alternative is to exploit the auditory modality as a means to support visual change detection. In the current study, we use a naval airwarfare simulation, and introduce an auditory alarm to coincide with critical visual changes (in aircraft speed/direction) on the radar. We found that participants detected a greater percentage of visual changes and were significantly quicker to detect these changes when they were accompanied by an auditory alarm than when they were not. Furthermore, participants reported that mental demand was lower in the auditory alarm condition, and this was reflected in reduced classification omissions on the primary task. Results are discussed in relation to Wickens' multiple resource theory of attention and indicate the potential for using the auditory modality to facilitate visual change detection.

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Background Sound Impairs Interruption Recovery in Dynamic Task Situations: Procedural Conflict?

Cited by 33 publications

References 76 publications

Attentional costs and failures in air traffic control notifications

Attentional costs and failures in air traffic control notifications

The impact of irrelevant auditory facial descriptions on memory for target faces: implications for eyewitness memory

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