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Keller, P., & Stevens, C. (2004). Meaning from environmental sounds: Types of signal-referent relations and their effect on recognizing auditory icons. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 10(1), 3–12. 
Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard (27/09/2005, 11:53)   Last edited by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard (14/10/2008, 00:11)
Resource type: Journal Article
BibTeX citation key: Keller2004
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Categories: Sound Design, Typologies/Taxonomies
Keywords: Earcons & Auditory Icons, Semantic categorization
Creators: Keller, Stevens
Collection: Journal of Experimental Psychology
Views: 16/813
Abstract
This article addresses the learnability of auditory icons, that is, environmental sounds that refer either directly or indirectly to meaningful events. Direct relations use the sound made by the target event whereas indirect relations substitute a surrogate for the target. Across 3 experiments, different indirect relations (ecological, in which target and surrogate coexist in the world; metaphorical, in which target and surrogate have similar appearance or function, and random) were compared with one another and with direct relations on measures including associative strength ratings, amount of exposure required for learning, and response times for recognizing icons. Findings suggest that performance is best with direct relations, worst with random relations, and that ecological and metaphorical relations involve distinct types of association but do not differ in learnability.
Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard  Last edited by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard
Notes
Classifications that distinguish between different types of auditory icons. Three experiments and their results are detailed.
Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard  Last edited by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard
Quotes
p.4  

The authors adapt a taxonomy of visual icon signal-referents from Familant (1993) & Detweiler for use with auditory icons. A direct reference "indicates a signal referent relation in which there is only one referent involved, the denotative referent (e.g., machine gun fire sound for firing machine gun) ... Indirect reference occurs when there are at least two referents. Typically the signal refers to the denotative referent through an intermediate sign referent ... An example from the auditory domain would be use of the sound of rattling trash cans--the sign referent--to signal that a computer file has been successfully deleted--the denotative referent."



Familant, M. E., & Detweiler, M. C. (1993). Iconic reference: Evolving perspectives and an organizing framework. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 39(5), 705–728.   Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard
p.10   Experimental results showed "that there is no significant difference in recognition accuracy or speed of response to ecological versus metaphorical relations."   Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard
p.11   The "predisposition to find meaning effectively widens the potential database of sounds that can be used as auditory warnings."   Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard
p.11  

The results of their experiments indicate that auditory icons "may outperform abstract sounds such as earcons" in contrast to Blattner et. al.'.'s assertions (Blattner, Sumikawa, & Greenberg 1989).

s assertions (Blattner, Sumikawa, & Greenberg 1989).



Blattner, M. M., Sumikawa, D. A., & Greenberg, R. M. (1989). Earcons and icons: Their structure and common design principles. Human-computer Interaction, 4, 11–44.   Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard
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