Do location and context operate independently?

Abstract

To investigate if location and content operate independently, two experiments were carried out in which redundant auditory co–messages to a visual categorization task were manipulated to enable left and right ear only presentation, as well as binaural presentation. The location cues were irrelevant to the main task and the auditory co–messages (in one experiment earcons and in the other auditory icons) contained redundant information from the primary task. The findings seem to indicate that location and content of the co–messages operate independently because no interaction between these factors were found.