Perceived Urgency of Warning Signals Determined Using a Forced Choice Pair Comparison Technique

摘要

Following work by RAE (Farnborough), ISVR (Southampton Univ.) and APU (MRC, Cambridge) a set of 40 high urgency warning signals were designed for RAE. The spectral content of the signals was designed to compensate for the acoustic characteristics of the aircraft, flight helmet and communication system. An experiment was designed to select, from these 40 signals, the six which were perceived as conveying the greatest urgency, and then, to assess these in a set including four previously selected signals already in use in experimental auditory warning signals. The data confirmed that those signals intended to be of the highest urgency were ranked correctly and that the relationships, in terms of perceived urgency, among the complete set of ten signals was as predicted. A self-paced learning experiment was performed which showed that the signals were easily learnt and that there was no significant confusion amongst them. Keywords: Psychoacoustics; Auditory perception; Emergency acoustic warning signals. Great Britain. (EDC)