Title: Individual differences in rapid spatial orientation across spatial frames of reference

Authors: Andre Garcia; Carryl Baldwin

Addresses: Northrop Grumman Corporation, Aerospace Systems Sector, Melbourne, FL, USA ' Department of Psychology, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, 3F5 Fairfax, VA 22030, USA

Abstract: Humans use different spatial reference frames that impact how they interact with displays and perform everyday spatial tasks. Switching visual attention between a distant or extrapersonal reference frame and a near or peripersonal frame is more effortful than requires switching within a given frame. However, much less is known about auditory spatial attention. In this study, 177 listeners identified auditory locations in rapid succession within and across peripersonal and extrapersonal regions of space (ROS). Participants responded faster when stimuli were moving towards them as long as stimuli were within the same ROS; but, not when the stimuli crossed ROS. Further, individuals with a poor sense of direction were more sensitive to direction of travel and responded disproportionally slower to stimuli that seemed to be moving away rather than towards them. Those with a good sense of direction responded equally fast to both directions. Implications of these findings for performance with complex auditory displays are discussed.

Keywords: auditory space; extrapersonal space; individual differences; peripersonal space; regions of space; spatial reference frames; spatial orientation; rapid orientation; sense of direction; auditory displays; complex displays.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHFE.2016.076574

International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2016 Vol.4 No.1, pp.73 - 88

Received: 28 Sep 2015
Accepted: 14 Mar 2016
Published online: 13 May 2016 *

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