Exploring the Role of Temporal Variation in the Detection and Subjective Annoyance of Auditory Alarm Signals

Abstract

This thesis is composed of two independent manuscripts for publication. The first (Chapter 2) “More Detectable, Less Annoying. The Role of Temporal Variation in Envelope and Spectral Content on Detection and Annoyance” will be submitted to Psychological Science. This manuscript explores how detection and annoyance of sound are affected by temporal variation in two acoustic parameters; amplitude envelope and spectral content. The second (Chapter 3) “Improving Detectability of Auditory Interfaces Through Temporal Variation in Envelope” will be submitted to Human Factors. Here I build off of the previous manuscript by investigating tone detection in a split attention task more pertinent to the normative use of auditory interfaces. The author of this thesis is the primary author of both papers.