Audio–Visual Cross-Modal Correspondences of Perceived Urgency: Examination through a Speeded Discrimination Task

When presenting information in vehicle cockpits, it is essential to convey an appropriate urgency to the drivers. Perceived urgency has been investigated over the years for each modality, particularly audition and vision. However, the interaction between the modalities of perceived urgency has rarely been examined. To expand the insight into the design application of information presentation, we investigated the audio–visual interaction of perceived urgency using a priming task that involved speeded visual-target discrimination. A total of 60 auditory stimuli were created using a synthesizer. In addition, 13 color squares were used as visual stimuli. Three auditory stimuli with high, medium, and low perceived urgency, and two visual stimuli with high and low perceived urgency were selected based on a subjective evaluation test using a seven-point scale. A priming task was conducted to examine the cross-modal interaction of perceived urgency. Auditory stimuli were presented as prime stimuli, and the participants were asked to discriminate the visual target as quickly as possible. The results revealed that auditory stimuli with high and low perceived urgency facilitated responses to each visual stimulus with similar perceived urgency relative to each visual stimulus with different perceived urgency. The auditory stimulus with medium perceived urgency also facilitated responses to the visual stimulus with high perceived urgency relative to low. The present study shows that cross-modal correspondences can be observed when the stimuli are selected based on their subjective perceived urgency.