Sub. & Ob. Testing-Divinyi and McAdams

[Gregory Kramer <70312.265@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: Gregory Kramer

It seems that the Deutsch discussion has brought us to the edge of one of the
more difficult issues, one that I face regularly in Auditory Display:
Subjective vrs. Objective and Qualitative vrs. Quantitative.

Trying to understand the dynamics of how a display is perceived is different
from, but crucial to, understanding how well it works.  There are many aspects
to this and not all of these can be easily boiled down to numbers.  For
example, relative to the Deutsch pitch-perception discussion, we would ask:
How does cultural background effect the usefulness (for a selected group) of a
sonification display or auditory interface?  Also:  How do the aesthetics of
the sound impact the effectiveness of the display as regards getting the
desired information across to the user?  There are many such questions.  At
the same time, other issues will yield to forced choice, task performance and
other more quantifiable approaches.

Feedback on this is most welcome.

Greg

Gregory Kramer
Clarity/Santa Fe Institute
Nelson Lane
Garrison, NY  10524
914-424-4071
fax:914-424-3467
email: kramer@santafe.edu