Operating Theatre Patient Monitoring: The Effects of Self Paced Distracter Tasks and Experimental Control on Sonification Evaluations

Three experiments were conducted to explore the effectiveness of continuous auditory displays, or sonifications, to convey information about simulated patient physiological state in dual task trials. Participants’ patient monitoring performance under different dual task conditions was investigated to determine if anaesthetic training was required to successfully use the sonification. A patient monitoring experiment using an arithmetic distracter task established that at high workloads, participants performed better when supported by the sonification than by visual displays. A second experiment using a manual labelling manipulation distracter task, that was less demanding on visual attention, demonstrated that participants could effectively use the combined sonification and visual patient monitors. A third experiment using the labelling task demonstrated the potential for non-anaesthetists to achieve better patient monitoring with sonification through greater exposure to the sonification and visual monitors. The results of the three experiments are used to highlight how the design of distracter tasks in divided attention experiment on process monitoring may have an impact on substantive conclusions about display modality effects.