Synchronous and asynchronous presentations of auditory and visual signals: Implications for control console design

Multisensory warning signals for event perception and safe driving

“…The inability to simultaneously process multiple sources of information places a number of important constraints on the design and utilisation of vehicular information systems (e.g. Burke et al 1980, Spence and Driver 1997b, Mather 2004, Chan and Chan 2006. What is more, these attentional limitations on driver performance are currently being exacerbated by the increasing availability of complex in-vehicle technologies (Wang et al 1996, Ashley 2001, Lansdown et al 2004, Lee et al 2004, although see also Rockwell 1988, Cnossen et al 2004, such as navigation systems (e.g.…”

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

“…1 The present study was designed to replicate and extend Van der Burg et al's (2008) findings using the auditory-visual pip-and-pop and vibrotactile-visual poke-and-pop paradigms to explore how visual search performance is modulated by cues that were not only temporally synchronous (presented in synchrony with the color change of the visual target) but also spatially informative with regard to the likely location of the target (in the left or right hemifield). The benefits of having auditory or tactile cues that are either temporally synchronous (e.g., Chan & Chan, 2006;Dalton & Spence, 2007;Van der Burg et al, 2008Vroomen & de Gelder, 2000) or spatially informative (Ho, Santangelo, & Spence, 2009;Ho, Tan, & Spence, 2006;Perrott et al, 1996;Perrott et al, 1991) have been repeatedly demonstrated trade-offs (see Spence, Kingstone, Shore, & Gazzaniga, 2001;Townsend & Ashby, 1983). IE scores were calculated by dividing each participant's mean RT for each condition by their proportion of correct responses for that condition.…”

“…Spatially uninformative auditory and vibrotactile cues have also been shown to facilitate participants' visual search performance when they are temporally synchronized with a change in the target stimulus (e.g., Bolognini, Frassinetti, Serino, & Làdavas, 2005;Chan & Chan, 2006;Van der Burg, Olivers, Bronkhorst, & Theeuwes, 2008Vroomen & de Gelder, 2000). For example, Van der Burg et al (2008) measured search latencies for visual targets presented in a frequently changing central search field.…”

Effectiveness of Bimodal Versus Unimodal Alerts for Distracted Drivers

“…While both unimodal and bimodal alerts are capable of attracting attention in undistracted conditions, bimodal alerts show increased benefit during tasks that induce high perceptual load (Botta et al, 2011;Chan & Chan, 2006;Ho, Reed, & Spence, 2007;Ho, Santangelo, & Spence, 2009;Santangelo & Spence, 2007). For example, Santangelo and Spence (2007) found that when participants were engaged in a perceptually demanding central rapid serial visual presentation task, bimodal cues aided detection of peripheral visual targets more than unimodal signals.…”