Effects of auditory distance cues and reverberation on spatial perception and listening strategies

TL;DR

This study investigates how auditory distance cues and reverberation influence spatial perception and listening strategies in realistic listening environments, highlighting adaptive head movements and the impact of reverberation on localisation accuracy.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how listeners adapt their listening strategies in reverberant environments, addressing ecological validity in spatial hearing research.

Findings

Head movements increase in reverberant environments.

Reverberation affects localisation accuracy.

Listening strategies adapt to acoustic conditions.

Abstract

Spatial hearing, the brain's ability to use auditory cues to identify the origin of sounds, is crucial for everyday listening. While simplified paradigms have advanced the understanding of spatial hearing, their lack of ecological validity limits their applicability to real-life conditions. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the effects of listener movement, reverberation, and distance on localisation accuracy in a more ecologically valid context. Participants performed active localisation tasks with no specific instructions on listening strategy, in either anechoic or reverberant conditions. The results indicate that the head movements were more frequent in reverberant environments, suggesting an adaptive strategy to mitigate uncertainty in binaural cues due to reverberation. While distance did not affect the listening strategy, it influenced the localisation performance. Our outcomes suggest that listening behaviour is adapted depending on the current acoustic conditions to support an effective perception of the space.