Influence of information cognition by separation of visual and auditory information positions: A case of information presentation for a driver in a vehicle cockpit

This research focused on separation of positions between auditory and visual information. In recent, there are many examples in our environment, including vehicle cockpit as well, that auditory and visual information are presented from different positions. It makes weaker the natural connection between auditory and visual information and may cause negative effects on information cognition. It is necessary to be recognized by recipients that the auditory and visual information are not separate each other but also indicating a single message. To investigate effects of the separation on the multi-modal recognition, we chose a case of in-vehicle information presentation. The auditory information are often used to help drivers looking for visual information displayed outside of their functional field of vision. In this study, the effect of the separation of auditory and visual information positions was investigated through a series of experiments using driving simulation system. As the results, the drivers could find visual information accurately and quickly for the condition of auditory information in the same direction to the visual, and also showed less mental workload. In the discussion, we summarized that the separation prevented intuitive understanding of information. Moreover, the separation may cause misunderstanding that auditory and visual information indicate different meanings.