Evaluation of Spatial Audio for Improving Change Detection on Large Screen Displays

Abstract

In the context of military command and control operations, operators are under an incredible amount of pressure to perform time-sensitive tasks in a rapidly changing environment. When the task involves a large screen display, it is easy to miss a critical event due to the overabundance of information present. In the current task, we investigated the potential of a spatial auditory cue for improving performance on a command and control monitoring task. We found that for a change detection task on a large screen display, a localized auditory cue can provide a useful and salient method of alerting operators to a change on the display. Additionally, because a spatial audio cue contains information about the location off an event on the screen, it gives the operator a better chance of detecting and responding to relevant events as they occur. Since a spatialized cue alerts the operator to the location of importance, it provides an especially critical advantage in areas of the screen which are normally associated with lower rates of detection.