The Effect of Emotional Sounds on Multiple Target Search

• Published in: Korean Journal of Cognitive Science Vol. 26; no. 3; pp. 301 - 322
• Main Authors: Hannah Kim(김해나), Kwang Hee Han(한광희)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 한국인지과학회 01.09.2015
• Subjects: 인지과학; 시각탐색만족; 시선추적; visual search; eye tracking; emotional sound; 소리; satisfaction of search; 시각탐색; 정서가
• ISSN: 1226-4067
• DOI: 10.19066/cogsci.2015.26.3.003

This study examined the effect of emotional sounds on satisfaction of search (SOS). SOS occurs when detection of a target results in a lesser chance of finding subsequent targets when searching for an unknown number of targets. Previous studies have examined factors that may influence the phenomenon, but the effect of emotional sounds is yet to be identified. Therefore, the current study investigated how emotional sound affects magnitude of the SOS effect. In addition, participants’ eye movements were recorded to determine the source of SOS errors. The search display included abstract T and L-shaped items on a cloudy background and positive and negative sounds. Results demonstrated that negative sounds produced the largest SOS effect by definition, but this was due to superior accuracy in low-salient single target trials. Response time, which represents efficiency, was consistently faster when negative sounds were provided, in all target conditions. On-target fixation classification revealed scanning error, which occurs because targets are not fixated, as the most prominent type of error. These results imply that the two dimensions of emotion - valence and arousal - interactively affect cognitive performance KCI Citation Count: 0