Effects of Bimodal Displays on Sonar Target Detection.

摘要

An experiment was conducted to determine whether bimodal (auditory plus visual) displays enhance operators' basic ability (perceptual sensitivity) to detect sonar targets. The possibility that operators' decisions about how to respond when uncertain (response criteria) contributed to the findings was ruled out by using data collection and analysis procedures based on the Theory of Signal Detectability. Also the detectability of the visual and auditory signals used in the bimodal display condition were carefully equated. This ruled out the possibility of a false bimodal effect due to bimodal display. This study also examined the effects of signal uncertainty and the degree of spatial correlation (compatibility) between the visual and auditory signals on the bimodal display. It was expected that spatially correlated auditory signals would facilitate detection in the bimodal condition by clueing the operator where to look on the visual display. The findings show that bimodal displays improve signal detection performance in sonar systems. They rule out the possibility that the advantage of bimodal displays is attributable to changes in operators' response criteria and/or artifacts caused by differences in the detectability of the visual and auditory signals. They also suggest that auditory displays offer advantages for real-world sonar operations, where signal uncertainty is often high. (jhd)