Investigating perceptual congruence between information and sensory parameters in auditory and vibrotactile displays

Ferguson, Jamie (2020) Investigating perceptual congruence between information and sensory parameters in auditory and vibrotactile displays. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

A fundamental interaction between a computer and its user(s) is the transmission of information between the two and there are many situations where it is necessary for this interaction to occur non-visually, such as using sound or vibration. To design successful interactions in these modalities, it is necessary to understand how users perceive mappings between information and acoustic or vibration parameters, so that these parameters can be designed such that they are perceived as congruent. This thesis investigates several data-sound and data-vibration mappings by using psychophysical scaling to understand how users perceive the mappings. It also investigates the impact that using these methods during design has when they are integrated into an auditory or vibrotactile display.

To investigate acoustic parameters that may provide more perceptually congruent data-sound mappings, Experiments 1 and 2 explored several psychoacoustic parameters for use in a mapping. These studies found that applying amplitude modulation — or roughness — to a signal, or applying broadband noise to it resulted in performance which were similar to conducting the task visually.

Experiments 3 and 4 used scaling methods to map how a user perceived a change in an information parameter, for a given change in an acoustic or vibrotactile parameter. Experiment 3 showed that increases in acoustic parameters that are generally considered undesirable in music were perceived as congruent with information parameters with negative valence such as stress or danger. Experiment 4 found that data-vibration mappings were more generalised — a given increase in a vibrotactile parameter was almost always perceived as an increase in an information parameter — regardless of the valence of the information parameter.

Experiments 5 and 6 investigated the impact that using results from the scaling methods used in Experiments 3 and 4 had on users' performance when using an auditory or vibrotactile display. These experiments also explored the impact that the complexity of the context which the display was placed had on user performance. These studies found that using mappings based on scaling results did not significantly impact user's performance with a simple auditory display, but it did reduce response times in a more complex use-case.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Sonification, vibration, psychoacoustics, parameter-mapping.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology; Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Funder's Name: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
• Supervisor's Name: Brewster, Professor Stephen
• Date of Award: 2020
• Depositing User: Mr Jamie Ferguson
• Unique ID: glathesis:2020-81675
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 29 Sep 2020 15:20
• Last Modified: 06 Sep 2022 08:31
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.81675
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/81675