Effects of 3D Auditory Display on Dual Task Performance in a Simulated Multiscreen Watchstation Environment

It is anticipated that watchstation operators in future U. S. Navy command and control environments will work in multitask settings that raise substantial performance and attention management challenges for user interfaces. To evaluate the capacity of an auditory display to contribute to the resolution of these concerns, we constructed a mockup of the Navy's current advanced multi-modal watchstation design and conducted a dual-task experiment that manipulated the visual distance between the task displays and the use of spatialized sound to direct attention (auditory deixis). Subjects in the repeated measures design were asked to carry out a continuous tracking task and a tactical decision task at the same time. Deictic sound had significant, positive effects on subjects' performance on the tactical task—response times were improved and there were fewer head movements. Furthermore, these benefits were achieved with no loss in tactical decision accuracy and no degradation in performance on the tracking task.