The influence of reverberation time on auditory selective attention switching in a virtual classroom scenea)

This study investigated the influence of room acoustics, specifically reverberation time, on switching auditory selective attention. Two classroom scenarios were simulated using the room acoustic software raven: one with favorable acoustic properties (T30=0.48 s) and one with unfavorable properties (T30=1.52 s). In a listening experiment with 16 adult participants, both scenarios were live-rendered using the ravenintegration for Virtual Acoustics in Unity to examine auditory attention switching in an audiovisual virtual classroom. Reaction times were unaffected by reverberation. However, participants made significantly more errors in the unfavorable condition compared to the favorable and anechoic scenarios. Results further suggest that long reverberation times impaired the spatial separation between target and distractor sounds, leading to reduced performance in the attention-switching task. Post-experiment questionnaires indicated lower perceived speech intelligibility and higher listening effort in the highly reverberant condition. These findings demonstrate that reverberation consistent with realistic classroom acoustics can impair auditory selective attention in an audiovisual virtual reality scenario, highlighting the importance of incorporating room acoustic conditions when investigating complex listening tasks.