Dynamic Auditory Preview for Visually Guided Target Aiming

The effects of a dynamic auditory preview display were examined in a visual target aiming task. A moving sound stimulus aligned with a visual target was presented over various distances beyond the bounds of a visual display. Results indicated reduced error magnitudes in aimed responses to visual targets with increasing auditory preview distance. In subsequent testing, the effects of position and velocity misalignments between the sound source and the visual target were assessed. In position misalignment conditions where the sound source lagged behind the visual target, higher error magnitudes were observed. However, when the auditory display preceded the visual target, performance improved. In velocity mismatch conditions, responses toward fast moving targets improved when a relatively faster sound source was previewed but were disrupted when a slower sound source was previewed. On the contrary, responses toward slow moving targets improved when a relatively slower sound source was previewed and were disrupted when a faster sound source was previewed.