Speech input output interfaces as a disruptive influence intransport control systems: a case against direct voice input/outputinterfaces in command and control

摘要

The present work follows on from experiments which havedemonstrated that the presence of the speech task gives rise todeleterious effects on performance in the concurrent visual-manual task,contrary to the predictions that might be derived from the processingresources model proposed by Wickens (1984). In the current research asimulated driving task was used to investigate the effect of aconcurrent auditory task on performance and it was concluded thatsimilar interactions could occur with increasing memory load. Pilotresearch was conducted confirming this effect in 1998 and the presentreport adds new evidence to this original work. This recent experimentinvestigated the effect of increasing the complexity of a counting taskusing digits presented verbally to the participants. In the simpleconditions the participants simply added or subtracted the verbal digitsto an earlier count value or the value presented initially. To increasethe memory load the subjects were asked to alternate regularly betweenaddition and subtraction and it was observed that subjects counting anddriving performance was significantly worse in this alternatingcondition when compared to the simple addition and subtractionconditions. This pattern of results was taken as further evidence thatthe concurrent execution of visual-manual and verbal-vocal tasksconcurrently was likely to result in significant performance decrements,in either task, when the memory load was greater for the distinct tasks.It is proposed that these observations are significant with respect tothe design of communication systems and the use of verbal feedbackwhilst training individuals to accomplish these tasks. This evidencesupports the view that hands-free speech interfaces in cars may presenta significant risk because of the diversion of attention from theprimary driving task