Sonification supports perception of brightness contrast

Abstract

In complex visual representations, there are several possible challenges for the visual perception that might be eased by adding sound as a second modality (i.e. sonification). It was hypothesized that sonification would support visual perception when facing challenges such as simultaneous brightness contrast or the Mach band phenomena. This hypothesis was investigated with an interactive sonification test, yielding objective measures (accuracy and response time) as well as subjective measures of sonification benefit. In the test, the participant’s task was to mark the vertical pixel line having the highest intensity level. This was done in a condition without sonification and in three conditions where the intensity level was mapped to different musical elements. The results showed that there was a benefit of sonification, with higher accuracy when sonification was used compared to no sonification. This result was also supported by the subjective measurement. The results also showed longer response times when sonification was used. This suggests that the use and processing of the additional information took more time, leading to longer response times but also higher accuracy. There were no differences between the three sonification conditions.