Auditory Perception: understanding and applying its principles 👂
User-centred design (e.g., interface design, presentation, shared technical document, dashboard) has traditionally placed significant emphasis on the visual dimension. However, the environment is also composed of sounds, vibrations, and auditory meanings that significantly influence our experiences.
Whether participating in a conference, working or walking in a bustling environment, playing video games, conducting an interview, or navigating a website with a screen reader for accessibility reasons, auditory perception is everywhere.
In our second article, we explored the aspects and characteristics of visual perception, and in our third article, we discussed applications in your daily practices.
Continuing in this vein, we present this fourth article to broaden our scope and include auditory perception. This article aims primarily to highlight the similarities between auditory and visual perception, emphasising how the principles previously discussed in the visual context can be applied in an equivalent and complementary manner, to auditory perception. To achieve this, we will first examine the functioning of the auditory perceptual process and then explore practical applications.
I. The perceptual process: what happens when you perceive auditorily?
Perceiving auditory information involves creating a mental representation of the immediate sound environment. In other words, hearing is not the same as auditory perception. Hearing is the physical process of receiving auditory stimuli, while perception is the subjective and cognitive interpretation of these stimuli. Thus, it is auditory perception that allows us to form mental images, representations of what is heard in the surrounding environment.
There is also a difference between hearing and listening; the difference lies more in the individual’s intention. Hearing is a passive process that involves simply receiving sounds, while listening is an active process that involves conscious attention and interpretation of the sounds heard. Let’s now take a closer look at what happens when we audibly perceive a stimulus (Schnupp, Nelken & King, 2011), such as the song of a bird, for example. We assume that each organ is functioning correctly.
- The stimulus: a sound. A stimulus is an external phenomenon that influences a system by triggering or modifying an internal phenomenon.
- The receptor organ: the ear. If we simplify the mechanism, the sound will be captured by the ear.
- Area of the brain specialised in auditory perception: the auditory cortex. Once the ear has captured the sound, it sends corresponding signals to the brain, specifically to the auditory cortex located in the temporal lobe.
- At the entrance of the auditory cortex, all electrical signals are divided and sent to 3 different areas to be processed. Each of these areas processes a specific attribute of auditory perception, namely loudness (i.e., intensity sensation, loud or soft sound), pitch (i.e., sensation related to frequency, low or high pitch), and timbre (i.e., allows differentiation between sounds).
Thus, in a few milliseconds, the brain (and not the ear!) can reconstruct the sound and interpret a bird’s song as more or less pleasant, more or less distant, or as belonging to a bird that is larger or smaller, for example. Our brain also allows us to act if necessary; perceiving the siren of an ambulance becoming louder will likely prompt you to let it pass.
II. And in our practices?
In our third article focusing on visual perception, we saw that it is entirely possible, relevant, and impactful to consider the cognitive processing of information — and more specifically, the laws of Gestalt — in our daily professional practices (e.g., interface design, collaborative documents, dashboards). Everything we shared with you regarding visual perception could be applied to auditory perception (e.g., Bregman, 1990; Deutsch, 2019). It’s simply another sensory modality.
A. The laws of similarity, proximity, and continuity
The law of similarity in visual perception is the tendency to group together elements that resemble each other (e.g., based on their colour, shape, texture, size, etc.). These elements are then considered by the brain to be part of the same family or to have the same function, for example.
In auditory perception, similar sounds will tend to be grouped together, such as similar tones or frequencies that form a melody.
The law of proximity in visual perception is the tendency to group together elements that are closest to each other.
In auditory perception, sounds close to each other in time are perceived as belonging to the same sound source or event.
The law of continuity in visual perception is the tendency to group elements that are in the extension of each other.
In auditory perception, sounds with continuity or temporal coherence are perceived as part of the same sequence or pattern.
Thus, one can imagine that when giving an oral presentation, taking pauses, emphasising certain words or phrases, and structuring our discourse by parts will facilitate message perception, help the listener follow by minimising cognitive resources used. This will make the listener more capable of integrating information correctly.
B. The law of closure
The law of closure in visual perception is the tendency to perceive a closed object rather than an open one and, in some cases, to process the closed object more quickly than an open one.
In auditory perception, individuals tend to complete missing sequences of sounds or ‘fill in the silences’ to form a coherent auditory perception.
Thus, when conducting an interview or a user test, for example, allowing moments of silence from time to time is often considered a good practice to adopt. Indeed, this is an effective way to give room for the user to speak, encouraging the individual to fill the silence with a response.
Similarly, you may have heard that during an oral presentation, it can be interesting to use the narrative loop method. The narrative loop involves introducing a question or anecdote at the beginning of the presentation and returning to it at the end of the presentation to conclude. This method helps capture or reactivate the audience’s attention. This induces a feeling of completeness, closure to the audience, further enhancing the lived experience and memorisation!
C. The law of good form
The good form law in visual perception is the tendency to perceive familiar shapes rather than any other form. In auditory perception, the good form law is based on the idea that the listener perceives sounds in a way that forms clear and simple structures rather than confusing configurations.
By using a known, familiar structure — such as the ‘introduction-development-conclusion’ structure, for example — it allows the listener to better apprehend and anticipate the presentation’s structure. Thus, the cognitive resources demanded from the listener are minimised, and the discourse becomes more impactful. Again, this method contributes to improving the lived experience and memorisation.
Conclusion
Just like in visual perception, it is crucial to keep in mind that a listener will not listen word for word to what you tell them for an hour: they must be able to focus their attention on key moments or information, cling to the structure and organisation of your speech, and easily find the information they came for.
The attention of your listeners — whatever their nature — is highly limited; an individual can only concentrate optimally for 25 minutes (Posner & Petersen, 1990). This is why the time management and productivity technique named ‘Pomodoro’ (Cirillo & Borgeaud, 2020) relies on working for four periods of 25 minutes interspersed with 5-minute breaks.
Therefore, working on your speech will captivate it more according to its interests and objectives and attract attention where it should be. You must do everything to limit the solicitation of cognitive resources and direct attention where you want it.
In summary, the laws and knowledge concerning cognitive and perceptual processing are as essential and applicable to auditory stimuli as they are to visual stimuli. They are crucial for understanding how we organise and interpret stimuli, how we form meaningful and coherent perceptual models.
Bibliographic References
- Bregman, A. S. (1994). Auditory scene analysis: The perceptual organization of sound. MIT press.
- Cirillo, F., & Borgeaud, E. (2020). La technique Pomodoro. Diateino.
- Deutsch, D. (2019). Psychology and music. In Psychology and its allied disciplines (pp. 155–194). Psychology Press.
- Posner, M. I., & Petersen, S. E. (1990). The attention system of the human brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 13, 25–42.
- Schnupp, J., Nelken, I., & King, A. (2011). Auditory neuroscience: Making sense of sound. MIT press.
Contributions
Original publication of this article in French 🔗
Joy Desdevises, PhD : conceptualisation, writing original draft, writing review and editing, illustrations, translation
Nora Kabbani : writing review and editing
