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This research addressed the problem of students' inattention to critical information from ti:Je computer interface by focusing on software solutions using sound. Current interest in constructivism, hypermedia authoring, and verbal-information learning suggested endorseme'1t of these areas as the experimental platform. Temporal sound was designated for empirical study. Temporal sound is spoken information provided about future and past events that prese.'lt highlights and details about static or moving visuals. The purpose of the study was to determine how temporal sound affected the students' attention to critical information. Twelve postseconda;J! students were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: sound, sound/text, or text. Between-subjects designs using small groups are not uncommon in educational computir:.g research. A protocol ana[ysis of their verbal reports revealed that temporal sound helped the:se subjects attend to screen information by affecting their constructive ability. Whereas text ar:.d sound/text subjects concentrated on one model through to the summary before beginning on the next model, sound subjects compared models before attempting the summaries. Subjects in the sound/text treatment summarized more highlights and details than those in the sound or text treatments. These findings confirmed previous research that reported that listeners tend w process information largely at the level of meaning (or highlights) rather than at the word level (or details). (

Forty-five years of intuitive combinations of audio-visual information have produced only mixed results. This paper proposes a conceptual, case-based method for adding audio to software. This method, unlike the intuitive approach, requires the researcher to assign structural and functional attributes from the SSF Model to specific software activities.

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