The Influence of Presentation Speed and Spatial Location on Reaction Time to Auditory Displays

To gain a better understanding of what parameters influence the redirection of attention to auditory stimuli, principal spatiotemporal factors and their affect on subjects’ focus were studied during a categorization task. Factors studied include presentation speed, stimulus location on the horizontal plane, for sounds perceived to be internalized and externalized. Statistically significant results indicate that 1) stimuli perceived inside the head result in a faster response than externalized stimuli, 2) response time does not change linearly with presentation speed, rather, there is an optimal presentation rate at which the response time if fastest, 3) stimuli presented in the frontal hemisphere are attended to faster than those in the back hemisphere. These findings indicate the existence of key factors influencing subjects’ performance in attending to auditory stimuli. [