In this research, effects of a warning's validity and display characteristics on the responses to binary warnings were studied in a categorization task resembling the control of a simulated production environment. Students performed a visual signal detection task and were aided by a binary warning indicator. Experimental conditions differed in the validity of the warning and its proximity to the judged stimulus. Participants' performance improved over the course of the experiment, and they partly adjusted their responses to the validity of the warnings but continued to respond to nonvalid warnings throughout the experiment. It was particularly difficult to ignore the nonvalid information when it was integrated with continuous information. There was evidence for nonoptimal use of the information from the warning system, whether it was valid or not valid. Results indicate a possible distinction between 2 dimensions of users' trust in warning systems: compliance and reliance.
Abstract