The effects of visual spatial and visual numerical supplements on telephonic communication efficiency.

Abstract

This study examined the effects of two types of visual supplements on telephonic communication efficiency to determine if type of information (i.e., spatial relations and/or numerical chronology type of information) and the modality of presentation (either through audition only or as a visual supplement to the auditory discourse) were related to (1) communication efficiency (i.e., the time required accurately to complete a communication task), (2) success rate (i.e., number of inaccurate agreements to reach a criterion of sixteen accurate agreements), or (3) communicator confidence. The findings of this investigation indicate that visually supplementing the spatial relations type of information significantly increased communication efficiency, but had no effect on communicator confidence. Visually supplementing the numerical chronology type of information had no effect on communication efficiency, but significantly lowered communicator confidence.