Alert Modality and Behavioral Compliance during Virtual Combat

Effectively transmitting alert information to soldiers on patrol is important and challenging. Such signals must be covertly presented, yet must effectively represent appropriate levels of urgency. Few researchers have investigated the joint effects of signal reliability and modality on receiver trust and compliance. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether alerts delivered through different sensory modalities (visual, auditory, or tactile) and different reliabilities (60% or 80% true alerts) yielded different trust levels and target identification behaviors. Thirty undergraduates completed two sessions of a virtual reconnaissance mission. During each session, they received 10 alerts about nearby opposing forces. They indicated trust or distrust of each alert, and subsequently identified the avatar as a friend or a foe. Results indicated that participants trusted more historically reliable alerts, and that they showed quicker identification behavior for visually presented alerts. Future researchers should investigate the match between modality and threat presentation.