Mappings and metaphors in auditory displays

Abstract

Auditory displays are becoming more and more common, but there are still no general guidelines for mapping data dimensions (e.g., temperature) onto display dimensions (e.g., pitch). This paper presents experimental research on different mappings and metaphors, in a generic process-control task environment, with reaction time and accuracy as dependent measures. It is hoped that this area of investigation will lead to the development of mapping guidelines applicable to auditory displays in a wide range of task domains.