The Perceived Urgency of Tactile Patterns During Dismounted Soldier Movements

Abstract : This research examines the effects of stimulus intensity and inter-stimulus interval (ISI) on Soldier ratings of signal perceived urgency and Soldier detection and identification of tactile patterns while performing dismounted maneuvers. A tactile system including an adjustable belt developed by Engineering Acoustics, Inc. (EAI), provided the tactile stimuli. This adjustable belt, which consists of eight EAI C2 tactors positioned at 45 intervals, was worn around each participant s waist. Participants received tactile patterns at an intensity of either 12.0 or 23.5 dB above mean threshold with an ISI of either 0 (no interval) or 500 ms. Participants were asked to identify each tactile pattern that they received and rate how urgent they perceived the pattern to be on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 was least urgent and 10 was most urgent. Patterns presented at the 23.5 dB intensity with no ISI were rated most urgent, but at the 12.0 dB intensity, there was no difference in ratings of perceived urgency based on ISI. Patterns presented at the stronger 23.5 dB intensity had significantly greater detection and identification rates than those presented at the 12.0 dB intensity. Findings indicate that it is possible to add urgency to tactile patterns in dismounted environments.

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