title: Speech Auditory Alerts Promote Memory for Alerted Events in a Video-Simulated Self-Driving Car Ride.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Auditory displays could be essential to helping drivers maintain situation awareness in autonomous vehicles, but to date, few or no studies have examined the effectiveness of different types of auditory displays for this application scenario.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Recent advances in the development of autonomous vehicles (i.e., self-driving cars) have suggested that widespread automation of driving may be tenable in the near future. Drivers may be required to monitor the status of automation programs and vehicle conditions as they engage in secondary leisure or work tasks (entertainment, communication, etc.) in autonomous vehicles.
  
  
  METHODS
  An experiment compared memory for alerted events-a component of Level 1 situation awareness-using speech alerts, auditory icons, and a visual control condition during a video-simulated self-driving car ride with a visual secondary task. The alerts gave information about the vehicle's operating status and the driving scenario.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Speech alerts resulted in better memory for alerted events. Both auditory display types resulted in less perceived effort devoted toward the study tasks but also greater perceived annoyance with the alerts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Speech auditory displays promoted Level 1 situation awareness during a simulation of a ride in a self-driving vehicle under routine conditions, but annoyance remains a concern with auditory displays.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Speech auditory displays showed promise as a means of increasing Level 1 situation awareness of routine scenarios during an autonomous vehicle ride with an unrelated secondary task.
authors.affiliation: Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania neesm@lafayette.edu.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nees
authors.affiliation: Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Benji
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Helbein
authors.affiliation: Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Porter
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000328:Adult; D001331:Automation; D001334:Automobile Driving; D001364:Awareness; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008328:Man-Machine Systems; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: auditory displays; auditory icons; autonomous vehicles; dual-task performance; human–automation interaction; memory; situation awareness; speech displays