Decaying amplitude envelopes reduce alarm annoyance: Exploring new approaches to improving auditory interfaces

Abstract

Auditory alarms offer great potential for facilitating human-computer interactions in complex, rapidly changing environments. They are particularly useful in medical settings, where in theory they should afford communication in emergency rooms, operating theatres, and hospitals around the world. Unfortunately, the sounds typically used in these devices are problematic, and researchers have documented numerous shortcomings. Their ubiquity means that even incremental improvements can have significant benefits for patient care. However, solutions have proven challenging for multiple reasons—including issues of backward compatibility inherent in changing any standard. Here we present a series of three experiments showing that manipulations to one specific, understudied property can significantly lower alarm annoyance without harming learning or memory—while preserving an alarm's melodic and rhythmic structure. These results suggest promising new directions for improving the hospital's soundscape, where evidence of problems related to sound are increasingly recognized as affecting medical outcomes as well as physician well-being.