The Effect of Walking on Auditory Localization, Visual Discrimination, and Aurally Aided Visual Search.
OBJECTIVE
The present study was designed to examine the impact that walking has on performance in auditory localization, visual discrimination, and aurally aided visual search tasks.


BACKGROUND
Auditory localization and visual search are critical skills that are frequently conducted by moving observers, but most laboratory studies of these tasks have been conducted on stationary listeners who were either seated or standing during stimulus presentation.


METHOD
Thirty participants completed three different tasks while either standing still or while walking at a comfortable self-selected pace on a treadmill: (1) an auditory localization task, where they identified the perceived location of a target sound; (2) a visual discrimination task, where they identified a visual target presented at a known location directly in front of the listener; and (3) an aurally aided visual search task, where they identified a visual target that was presented in the presence of multiple visual distracters either in isolation or in conjunction with a spatially colocated auditory cue.


RESULTS
Participants who were walking performed auditory localization and aurally aided visual search tasks significantly faster than those who were standing, with no loss in accuracy.


CONCLUSION
The improved aurally aided visual search performance found in this experiment may be related to enhanced overall activation caused by walking. It is also possible that the slight head movements required may have provided auditory cues that enhanced localization accuracy.


APPLICATION
The results have potential applications in virtual and augmented reality displays where audio cues might be presented to listeners while walking.
['Brungart|Douglas S|DS|', 'Kruger|Sarah E|SE|', 'Kwiatkowski|Tricia|T|', 'Heil|Thomas|T|0000-0003-4427-4591', 'Cohen|Julie|J|']
D000328:Adult D004192:Discrimination, Psychological D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008889:Military Personnel D013017:Sound Localization D013647:Task Performance and Analysis D014796:Visual Perception D016138:Walking D055815:Young Adult
balance cognition dual task kinesthesis multisensory integration orientation proprioception sensory and perceptual processes simulation task switching time sharing virtual environments virtual reality