Parameters of Auditory Announcements.

This memorandum presents the results of an investigation of factors influencing the effectiveness of relatively brief (0.5 to 5 minutes), information-rich auditory (spoken) announcements. Some applications for the type of messages studied here are audiotex services and audio-based training and help systems. In the first part of the investigation, literature from several disciplines was reviewed, with special emphasis on results of empirical studies from cognitive psychology. Of primary interest were parameters determining comprehension and memory for announcements, as well as more subjective attributes which might cause one announcement to be preferred over another. A number of variables such as message organization, amount of information, familiarity, concreteness, and linguistic complexity, as well as factors controlling attention and motivation, were identified as potentially influencing message effectiveness.