Effects of Tactile, Visual, and Auditory Cues About Threat Location on Target Acquisition and Attention to Visual and Auditory Communications

This study examined the effects of tactile, visual, and auditory (spatial language and three-dimensional [3-D] audio) cues about threat location on target acquisition and the recall of information presented in visual and auditory communications. On average, participants hit 98% of the targets presented when cued about the location of targets compared to 64% in a baseline condition (no cues). When target location cues were provided, time to first shot was an average 26% faster; 23% more information was recalled from the auditory and visual communications, and overall workload scores were 17% lower. On average, time to first shot in the visual and spatial language modes was 13% faster than in the tactile condition and 26% faster than in the 3-D audio mode. Overall workload scores were an average 14% higher in the 3-D audio mode than in the other conditions in which target location cues were provided. Communications modality did not have a significant effect on either the amount of information recalled from the communications or on target acquisition. No interactions were found between communications modality and cue condition. However, on average, 10% more information was recalled from communications when target location cues were provided in the visual mode than in the other cue conditions. The original document contains color images.