Online sonification for golf putting gesture: reduced variability of motor behaviour and perceptual judgement

Increasing auditory intensity enhances temporal but deteriorates spatial accuracy in a virtual interception task

Humans are quite accurate and precise in interception performance. So far, it is still unclear what role auditory information plays in spatiotemporal accuracy and consistency during interception. In the current study, interception performance was measured as the spatiotemporal accuracy and consistency of when and where a virtual ball was intercepted on a visible line displayed on a screen based on auditory information alone. We predicted that participants would more accurately indicate when the ball would cross a target line than where it would cross the line, because human hearing is particularly sensitive to temporal parameters. In a within-subject design, we manipulated auditory intensity (52, 61, 70, 79, 88 dB) using a sound stimulus programmed to be perceived over the screen in an inverted C-shape trajectory. Results showed that the louder the sound, the better was temporal accuracy, but the worse was spatial accuracy. We argue that louder sounds increased attention toward auditory information when performing interception judgments. How balls are intercepted and practically how intensity of sound may add to temporal accuracy and consistency is discussed from a theoretical perspective of modality-specific interception behavior.

The impact of pitch on tempo-spatial accuracy and precision in intercepting a virtually moving ball

In two experiments, horizontal and vertical orientated sounds moved in parabolas. Participants had to touch a screen to indicate where and when a virtual moving ball would cross a visible line. We predicted that due to the sensitivity of the auditory system to temporal information, manipulations of pitch should affect temporal errors more than spatial errors. Stimuli were sound sources at five different pitches moving along a parabola produced through loudspeakers mounted around a touch screen. Results showed pitch effects on spatial constant and spatial variable errors when the parabola was horizontally oriented (Exp. 1), and on temporal constant errors in vertically oriented parabolas (Exp. 2). We conclude that temporal and spatial precision in interception tasks were affected differently by pitch manipulations and require consideration in future studies when assessing the impact of auditory information on catching virtually moving balls.