With relevance to auditory alarm design, we examined whether the semanticity of spoken words (Negatively-valenced vs Neutral; Non-words vs words; Action vs non-Action words) and their intonation-style ("urgent" vs. "calm") modulate the extent to which words capture attention from a visually-presented serial recall task (objective measure) and whether these behavioural effects map onto subjective ratings of "Perceived urgency" and "Attention grabbingness" (subjective measure). Compared to quiet or a repeated tone, the infrequent presentation of a spoken word captured attention-as indexed by an impairment of serial recall-but there were no effects of semanticity or intonation. However, action words were rated as more urgent and attention-grabbing than neutral words which were rated as more urgent and attention-grabbing than non-words. "Urgent" words were also rated higher in urgency and attention grabbingness than "calm" words regardless of valence. The results question the utility of subjective ratings for the purpose of spoken-alarm design.
Godkänd; 2008; 20081008 (jeskor)