A Perceptual Study of Sound Ecology in Peripheral Sonification

TL;DR

This study investigates how ecological coherence in soundscapes affects perception and performance in peripheral sonification, finding that less ecologically coherent sounds may improve notification detection but natural sounds are less intrusive.

Contribution

It compares the effects of natural versus musical sound ecologies on detection accuracy and intrusion perception in a dual-task setting, expanding understanding of soundscape design in sonification.

Findings

Natural sounds perceived as less intrusive

Less ecologically coherent sounds improved detection accuracy

Natural sounds supported better primary task performance

Abstract

Based on a case study on 3D printing, we have been experimenting on the sonification of multidimensional data for peripheral process monitoring. In a previous paper, we tested the effectiveness of a soundscape which combined intentionally incongruous natural and musical sounds. This was based on the hypothesis that auditory stimuli could better stand out from one another if they were less ecologically coherent, thus allowing for better reaction rates to various notifications. In this paper, we follow up on that hypothesis by testing two new acoustic ecologies, each exclusively consisting of either musical or natural sounds. We then run those ecologies through the same dual-task evaluation process as the previous one in order to compare them. The results seem to favor our hypothesis, as the new ecologies were not detected as accurately as the original. Though, the set of natural sounds seemed to be considered less intrusive by testers, and to allow for a better performance at an external primary task. We hope to see this work become part of a much larger corpus of studies, which may eventually provide a more definite answer on the effect of ecological coherence in peripheral soundscape design.