Auditory Warnings in the Military Cockpit: A Preliminary Evaluation of Potential Sound Types

Abstract

This document reports the results of two experiments assessing the viability of speech, auditory icons (environmental sounds) and abstract sounds (complex tones) for use as auditory warnings in military cockpits. Experiment One evaluated the comparative ease of learning and retention of these three sound types, with the results demonstrating that speech warnings and auditory icons were learnt and trained with equal ease, while abstract-sound warnings were found to be learnt and retained with far greater difficulty. Experiment Two examined a user's ability to respond to speech, icon and abstract auditory warnings under varying degrees of workload. The results of this experiment show that speech warnings provide and advantage in reaction time and response accuracy over auditory icon warnings, which in turn hold an advantage over abstract sounds. The results of these two experiments indicated that, under low levels of workload, speech warnings may prove to be an effective supplement to traditional visual warnings, while icons also warrant further investigation.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA444013

Entities

People

  • Karen L. Stephan
  • Sean E. Smith
  • Simon P. Parker

Organizations

  • Defence Science and Technology Group

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Electronic Warfare
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Aircrafts
  • Behavioral Sciences
  • Cognition
  • Engineering
  • Information Processing
  • Information Transfer
  • Military Aircraft
  • Psychology
  • Radar Warning Receivers
  • Reaction Time
  • Simulations
  • Systems Science
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Warfare
  • Warning Systems
  • Workload

Readers

  • Critical Infrastructure Protection in CBRN and WMD Threats.
  • Speech Processing/Speech Recognition.
  • Systems Analysis and Design