The multisensory benefit of informative sound in visual task performance

Abstract

Auditory alarms are relied upon to provide cues for industries with high-risk, multisensory performance tasks such as health care. In an anechoic chamber, anesthesiology residents (N = 25) were tested in a simulated multi-task setting, including a patient monitoring primary task with alarmed events, and a visual vigilance task. Alarm type was varied between conventional (following the International Electrotechnical Commission Standard 60601-1-8) and a novel auditory icon alarm, which provide additional information about the event causing the alarm. Novel alarm usage led to a 37% increase in vigilance accuracy and 160 ms reduction in response time, implying that the use of auditory icon alarms can provide multisensory benefits. These findings suggest that novel auditory icons help individuals by reducing the cognitive burdens of primary tasks through reducing visual search of the patient monitoring display. Therefore, auditory alarms help to reduce visual demand through offering cues to change; attention can be focused through the recognition of specifically encoded characteristics of audiovisual objects. These findings advocate for reconsideration of alarm type usage in favor of novel alarms, especially in high-stakes environments to potentially improve patient safety and outcomes.