Effects of Auditory Context Cues and Training on Performance of a Point Estimation Sonification Task

SUMMARY Research on auditory graph interpretation has investigated mappings, scalings, and polarities, as well as the addition of some contextual design features like clicks. However, little has been done to quantify the benefits of those or other design features, or to investigate training in specific sonification tasks such as point estimation. In Study 1, 160 undergraduates listened to auditory graphs and estimated exact dollar values at specific points in the graph. X-axis context (clicks) improved performance by aiding time calibration. Y-axis context (reference tones) that provided scaling cues improved performance. In Study 2, listeners performed similar tasks with continuous as opposed to discrete stimuli, and with or without training. X-axis clicks did not help in this case. Training improved performance overall. When there was no training, y-axis context improved performance to the level of trained listeners, suggesting the effects of training and y-axis were comparable, but not additive. Copyright # 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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