PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Kyle Reed

Industrial/Organizational
June 1995

The Effects of Auditory Cue Accuracy in an Aurally Aided Visual Search Task

    The presentation of an auditory cue corresponding to the location of a visual target has been found to reduce the amount of time necessary to locate the target, as compared to when no such cue is provided.  The purpose of the current study was to determine how far from a visual target an auditory cue can be presented before visual search performance suffers.
    The results of this study showed that sound cues which corresponded exactly to the location of a visual target led to faster search times than sound cues which were moderately displaced in a horizontal direction.  Spatially corresponding cues did not lead to faster search times than any of the other conditions in which sound cues were displaced from the visual target.  Minimum accuracy requirements of auditory cues, as well as possible differences between vertical and horizontal accuracy requirements, were proposed based on the findings of the study.

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