COGNITIVE-PSYCHOLOGY AND THE DESIGN OF ALARM SOUNDS

One of the less desirable features about technological advances in med icine is that individuals working with sophisticated monitoring equipm ent are often bombarded by warning sounds and signals. However, there are some basic cognitive psychological principles which suggest that t he over-use of auditory warnings in such circumstances may be counter- productive This review highlights some of these principles, arguing th at future systems should place more emphasis upon cognitive capabiliti es and predispositions in their design. Upcoming alarms standards wher e issues such as the number of alarms, their recognizability, and the principle of 'urgency mapping' are discussed with relation to the cogn itive psychology of sound.