Individual differences in verbal-spatial conflict in rapid spatial-orientation tasks

The impact of interference from irrelevant spatial versus verbal cues is investigated in an auditory spatial Stroop task, and individual differences in navigation strategy are examined as a moderating factor.

Verbal-spatial cue conflict in the auditory modality has not been extensively studied, and yet the potential for such conflict can be high in certain settings, such as modern aircraft and automobile cockpits, where multiple warning systems and verbally delivered instructions may compete for the operator's spatial attention.

Two studies are presented in which participants responded to either the semantic meaning or the spatial location of directional words, which were presented from congruent and incongruent locations. A subset was selected from the larger sample for additional analyses based on their navigation strategy.

Results demonstrated greater interference when participants were responding to the spatial location and thus attempting to ignore conflicting semantic information. Participants with a verbal navigation strategy paralleled this finding. Conversely, highly spatial navigators responded faster to spatially relevant information but did not show corresponding interference when trying to ignore spatial information.

The findings suggest that people have fundamentally different approaches to the use of auditory spatial information that manifest at the early level of orienting toward a single word or sound.

When designing spatial information displays and warning systems, particularly those with an auditory component, designers should ensure that either verbal-directional or nonverbal-spatial information is utilized by all alerts to reduce interference.