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A functional and effective alarm signal is a critical component of alarm systems designed to alert workers of impending danger. In a previous study (Hansson, 2017) background alarm sirens composed of changing-state sounds with an embedded temporal deviant, produced greater disruption of serial short-term memory than a signal without a deviant. However, to give rise to disruption the siren needed to change from fast to slow, since a change from slow to fast was impotent in its effect on task performance. In the current study, whether acoustic change was a necessary prerequisite for obtaining the fast-to-slow deviant effect was explored. Thus, repeated tones—steady-state sequences—presented at slow or fast rates were used with or without a temporal deviant (change from slow-to-fast vs. change from fast-to-slow). In the context of the steady-state sequences, both slow-to-fast and fast-to-slow temporal deviants produced disruption relative to the fast and slow control sequences. This suggests that a changing-state sequence is required for the fast-to-slow temporal deviant effect to arise. However, an alternative explanation based upon inter-stimulus intervals is also entertained. Understanding the acoustic parameters of sound is necessary to develop alarms sirens that are better at capturing attention. The current study suggests that embedding temporal deviants within sirens can promote greater attentional capture, but that this may depend on the nature of the alarm signal (whether it is changing vs. steady-state) and the direction of the change of speed (slow-to-fast vs. fast-to-slow). |
