Robot interfaces often only use the visual channel. Inspired by Wickens' Multiple Resource Theory, we investigated if the addition of audio elements would reduce cognitive workload and improve performance. Specifically, we designed a search and threat-defusal task (primary) with a memory test task (secondary). Eleven participants - predominantly first responders - were recruited to control a robot to clear all threats in a combination of four conditions of primary and secondary tasks in visual and auditory channels. We did not find any statistically significant differences in performance or workload across subjects, making it questionable that Multiple Resource Theory could shorten longer-term task completion time and reduce workload. Our results suggest that considering individual differences for splitting interface modalities across multiple channels requires further investigation.
翻译:机器人界面通常只使用视觉频道。 在Wickens' 多重资源理论的启发下, 我们调查了增加音频元素是否会减少认知工作量并改进性能。 具体地说, 我们设计了一个具有记忆测试任务( 二级) 的搜索和威胁破坏任务( 初级任务 ) 。 11名参与者 — — 主要是第一反应者 — — 被招募来控制机器人, 结合视觉和听觉频道的4个初级任务和次要任务,来清除所有威胁。 我们没有发现不同科目之间在业绩或工作量方面存在任何统计上的重大差异, 这使得多资源理论可以缩短长期任务完成时间并减少工作量令人怀疑。 我们的结果表明,考虑将界面模式分成多个渠道的个体差异需要进一步调查。