The Relationship between Task Performance, Reaction Time, and Perceived Urgency in Nonverbal Auditory Warnings

Edworthy, Judy; Hellier, Elizabeth; Walters, Kathryn; Weedon, Ben; Adams, Andrew A.

doi:10.1177/154193120004402247

Cited by 16 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…This result extends existing work like [4,5] by testing in the context of a driving simulator and using all combinations of Audio, Visual and Tactile modalities. More urgent warnings created more quick and more accurate responses in this study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

“…In line with [4,5], it was hypothesized that the designed urgency and modality of warnings would influence their recognition time. As in Experiment 1, all responses were acquired both in the presence and in the absence of a driving simulator.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Edworthy, Loxley & Dennis [6] demonstrated how parameters like higher fundamental frequency, higher speed and larger pitch range can increase the perceived urgency ratings of auditory warnings. Later, Edworthy et al [5] observed significantly lower response times for warnings designed to be of a high urgency level, compared to those of medium and low urgency levels. Marshall, Lee & Austria [17] reported how parameters like higher pulse duration and lower interpulse interval can increase the ratings of urgency and annoyance of audio alerts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Evaluating multimodal driver displays of varying urgency

Politis

Brewster

Pollick

2013

Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications

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Previous studies have evaluated Audio, Visual and Tactile warnings for drivers, highlighting the importance of conveying the appropriate level of urgency through the signals. However, these modalities have never been combined exhaustively with different urgency levels and tested while using a driving simulator. This paper describes two experiments investigating all multimodal combinations of such warnings along three different levels of designed urgency. The warnings were first evaluated in terms of perceived urgency and perceived annoyance in the context of a driving simulator. The results showed that the perceived urgency matched the designed urgency of the warnings. More urgent warnings were also rated as more annoying but the effect of annoyance was lower compared to urgency. The warnings were then tested for recognition time when presented during a simulated driving task. It was found that warnings of high urgency induced quicker and more accurate responses than warnings of medium and of low urgency. In both studies, the number of modalities used in warnings (one, two or three) affected both subjective and objective responses. More modalities led to higher ratings of urgency and annoyance, with annoyance having a lower effect compared to urgency. More modalities also led to quicker responses. These results provide implications for multimodal warning design and reveal how modalities and modality combinations can influence participant responses during a simulated driving task.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Evaluating multimodal driver displays of varying urgency

Politis

Brewster

Pollick

2013

Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The goal was to investigate the effect of the situation simulated on observed driver responses. As described above, several studies have reported how designed urgency and modality affected response times, for example [8,11,27]. The influence of modalities used in warnings to lateral deviation and steering angle has also been shown in the past, for example in [21].…”

Section: Situational Urgency Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Edworthy, Loxley & Dennis [9] showed that higher fundamental frequency, higher speed and larger pitch range can increase the perceived urgency ratings of auditory warnings. Edworthy et al [8] observed significantly lower response times for highly urgent warnings, compared to warnings designed to be of medium and low urgency levels. Marshall, Lee & Austria [24] demonstrated how parameters like higher pulse duration and lower interpulse interval increased ratings of urgency of audio alerts.…”

Section: Guidelines For Warning Urgency Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating multimodal driver displays under varying situational urgency

Politis

Brewster

Pollick

2014

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Previous studies have investigated audio, visual and tactile driver warnings, indicating the importance of communicating the appropriate level of urgency to the drivers. However, these modalities have never been combined exhaustively and tested under conditions of varying situational urgency to assess their effectiveness both in the presence and absence of critical driving events. This paper describes an experiment evaluating all multimodal combinations of such warnings under two contexts of situational urgency: a lead car braking and not braking. The results showed that participants responded quicker to more urgent warnings, especially in the presence of a car braking. They also responded faster to the multimodal as opposed to unimodal signals. Driving behaviour improved in the presence of the warnings and the absence of a car braking. These results highlight the influence of urgency and number of modalities in warning design and indicate the utility of non-visual warnings in driving.

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