Design and Development of an Adaptive, Auditory, and Distractive Stressor

An auditory, distractive stressor was developed that automatically adjusts its rate of presenting random digits to human subjects. The rate of digit presentation serves as an inverse index of the amount of attention the subject can spare from a primary task, such as driving a simulated car. The auditory pattern recognition of the device was evaluated under several speaking conditions and for a variety of human speakers. The distractive stressor has a satisfactory digit recognition accuracy, and consequently adapts its digit presentation rate quickly according to how well a subject repeats its given numbers.