Designing for Attention With Sound: Challenges and Extensions to Ecological Interface Design

The cognitive work analysis framework continues to attract increasing attention from the human factors and ergonomics community. Conversely, hierarchical task analysis has been, and remains, the most popular of all human factors and ergonomics methods. This article compares the two approaches in terms of their theoretical underpinning, methodological approach and potential contributions to system design and evaluation. To do this, recent analyses, involving both approaches, of a military rotary wing mission planning software tool are compared and contrasted in terms of their methodological procedure and analysis outputs. The findings indicate that, despite the very different theoretical and methodological nature of the two approaches, and also the entirely different analyses derived, the two methods provide highly complementary outputs. In conclusion, it is argued that there is benefit in applying both approaches to inform the design and/or evaluation of the same product or system.Keywords: cognitive work analysis; hierarchical task analysis; mission planning; human factors methods IntroductionOut of the abundance of human factors and cognitive engineering methods available, hierarchical task analysis (HTA; Annett et al. 1971) and cognitive work analysis (CWA; Vicente 1999a) are arguably the most popular. The former represents the traditional task analytic approach; the latter represents the more modern system design framework. Both approaches have distinct theoretical underpinnings and approach the analysis of systems in quite different ways, yet they are often discussed in the same breath. It is important to clarify what the theoretical and methodological differences between the two are and, even more so, to identify if, and how, the two approaches can be used in tandem during complex system design and evaluation efforts (Hajdukiewicz and Vicente 2004). This article presents a comparison of the two approaches in terms of their theoretical underpinning, methodological procedure and contribution to the system design life cycle. To do this the methods are first discussed in terms of their theoretical underpinning and methodological nature, following which recent HTA and CWA analyses of a military rotary wing mission planning system (MPS) software tool are compared and contrasted.

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“…Naikar and Sanderson 2001), health care (e.g. Watson and Sanderson 2007), hydropower (e.g. Memisevic et al 2005), nuclear power (e.g.…”

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confidence: 99%

Hierarchical task analysis vs. cognitive work analysis: comparison of theory, methodology and contribution to system design

Salmon

Jenkins²,

Stanton

et al. 2010

Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science

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“…3 12 Although there is evidence that current pulse oximeter sonifications are effective for informing clinicians when saturation decreases rapidly, remains relatively stable, or increases rapidly, there is mounting evidence that they cannot judge absolute SpO 2 levels using the current auditory displays. 1 2 12 Adding further sound properties to attract auditory attention to clinically important thresholds was suggested by Watson and Sanderson 13 and recent laboratory investigations demonstrate the potential of this method for enhancing pulse oximeter sonifications. [4][5][6] However, participants in the recent studies focused solely on the task of SpO 2 monitoring in a quiet environment, and there were no alarms used in the control condition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of enhanced pulse oximetry sonifications for conveying oxygen saturation ranges: a laboratory comparison of five auditory displays

Paterson

Sanderson

Paterson

et al. 2017

British Journal of Anaesthesia

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. Effectiveness of enhanced pulse oximetry sonifications for conveying oxygen saturation ranges: a laboratory comparison of five auditory displays. BJA: British Journal of Anaesthesia, 119(6), 1224Anaesthesia, 119(6), -1230Anaesthesia, 119(6), . https://doi.org/10.1093 The effectiveness of enhanced pulse oximetry sonifications for conveying oxygen saturation ranges: A laboratory comparison of five auditory displays Methods. In a laboratory setting, we compared the ability of non-clinician participants to detect transitions into and out of an SpO 2 target range using five different sonifications while they performed a secondary distractor arithmetic task in the presence of background noise. The control sonification was based on the auditory display of current pulse oximeters and comprised a variable pitch with an alarm. The four experimental conditions included an alarm only condition, a variable pitch only condition and two conditions using sonifications enhanced with additional sound dimensions. Accuracy to detect SpO 2 target transitions was the primary outcome.Results. We found that participants using the two sonifications enhanced with the additional sound dimensions of tremolo and brightness were significantly more accurate (83% and 96%) at detecting transitions to and from a target SpO 2 range than participants using a pitch-only sonification plus alarms (57%) as implemented in current pulse oximeters. Conclusions.Enhanced sonifications are more informative than conventional sonification. The implication is that they may allow anaesthetists to better judge when desaturation decreases below, or returns to, a target range. Recent research shows that listeners can distinguish designated SpO 2 ranges and transitions into and out of a target range more accurately with an enhanced auditory display (sonification) than with a variable-pitch only sonification. [4][5][6] The enhanced sonifications in these studies comprised variable pitch with the addition of other sound characteristics in non-target ranges. A limitation of these studies was that participants had no other tasks apart from judging SpO 2 ranges and detecting transitions into and out of the target range, whereas during surgery anaesthetists perform many tasks in addition to monitoring a patient's state. Another limitation was that the research was conducted in a quiet room without background noise, whereas noise levels in the operating theatre average from 51 to 75 dB 7 and can reach values greater than 120 dB. Keywords 8In this study, we compared participants' ability to distinguish transitions into and out of a SpO 2 target range using five different sonifications while performing a distractor task, and in the presence of background noise. We predicted that participants using sonifications enhanced with additional sound dimensions would detect SpO 2 transitions into and out of a predefined target range more accurately than participants using a conventional variable-pitch only sonification. MethodsThe study was approved by the School of Psychology, ...

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“…They extend EID by adding another layer of attentional mapping to manage the split between the user's attention for different elements of the interface. They have successfully applied this method to design warning signals in a medical environment (Watson and Sanderson, 2007). Guidelines for other safety critical environments also focused on attentional and urgency aspects for designing alarms, for example in aviation (Patterson, 1982).…”

Section: Physical Design and Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Auditory display design—An investigation of a design pattern approach

Frauenberger

Stockman

2009

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies

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Designing for Attention With Sound: Challenges and Extensions to Ecological Interface Design

Abstract: Actual or potential uses of this research include the design of displays that support continuous peripheral awareness in collaborative multimodal work environments.

Cited by 84 publications

References 64 publications

Hierarchical task analysis vs. cognitive work analysis: comparison of theory, methodology and contribution to system design

Hierarchical task analysis vs. cognitive work analysis: comparison of theory, methodology and contribution to system design

Effectiveness of enhanced pulse oximetry sonifications for conveying oxygen saturation ranges: a laboratory comparison of five auditory displays

Auditory display design—An investigation of a design pattern approach

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