The ability to focus ones attention in different acoustical environments has been thoroughly investigated in the past. However, recent technological advancements have made it possible to perform laboratory experiments in a more realistic manner. In order to investigate close-to-real-life scenarios, a classroom was modeled in virtual reality (VR) and an established paradigm to investigate the auditory selective attention (ASA) switch was translated from an audio-only version into an audiovisual VR setting. The new paradigm was validated with adult participants in a listening experiment, and the results were compared to the previous version. Apart from expected effects such as switching costs and auditory congruency effects, which reflect the robustness of the overall paradigm, a difference in error rates between the audio-only and the VR group was found, suggesting enhanced attention in the new VR setting, which is consistent with recent studies. Overall, the results suggest that the presented VR paradigm can be used and further developed to investigate the voluntary auditory selective attention switch in a close-to-real-life classroom scenario.

Most studies investigating the effects of environmental noise on children’s cognitive performance examine the impact of monaural noise (i.e., same signal to both ears), oversimplifying multiple aspects of binaural hearing (i.e., adequately reproducing interaural differences and spatial information). In the current study, the effects of a realistic classroom-noise scenario presented either monaurally or binaurally on tasks requiring processing of auditory and visually presented information were analyzed in children and adults. In Experiment 1, across age groups, word identification was more impaired by monaural than by binaural classroom noise, whereas listening comprehension (acting out oral instructions) was equally impaired in both noise conditions. In both tasks, children were more affected than adults. Disturbance ratings were unrelated to the actual performance decrements. Experiment 2 revealed detrimental effects of classroom noise on short-term memory (serial recall of words presented pictorially), which did not differ with age or presentation mode (monaural vs. binaural). The present results add to the evidence for detrimental effects of noise on speech perception and cognitive performance, and their interactions with age, using a realistic classroom-noise scenario. Binaural simulations of real-world auditory environments can improve the external validity of studies on the impact of noise on children’s and adults’ learning.

Recent efforts to mimic real-life situations in experiments aim to improve the ecological validity of research. Acoustically, this often involves using binaural reproduction to create realistic environments. While studies have shown that simplified acoustic presentations, such as white noise, affect children’s auditory selective attention without impacting adults, other research suggests that these effects might be overestimated in monaural scenarios. This underscores the need for more realistic approaches. The current study introduced spatialized, non-stationary classroom noise with and without speech, comparing it to white noise and a silent baseline in a child-appropriate experiment on auditory selective attention in a virtual reality classroom. Findings from adult participants, who were tested to validate the paradigm, indicated significantly higher error rates for realistic classroom noise compared to white noise and silence. Trials with intelligible speech as a distractor were particularly disruptive to auditory attention. Participants also reported higher mental demand, perceived effort, and task difficulty with complex noise types. These results emphasize the importance of using complex noise scenarios in auditory cognition research to draw conclusions applicable to real-life situations. This approach provides a more accurate understanding of how realistic classroom noise affects auditory selective attention.

In virtual reality research, distinguishing between auditory and visual influences on perception has become increasingly challenging. To study auditory selective attention in more close-to-real-life settings, an auditory task was adapted to a virtual classroom. The new environment suggested evidence of increased attention, possibly introduced by the visual representation, gamification effects, and immersion. This could engage participants more effectively. To delve deeper into the impact of cross-modal effects, the paradigm was extended by visual stimuli. Participants were initially tasked with directing their auditory attention to a cued spatial position and categorizing animal names played from that position while ignoring distracting sounds. Animal pictures introduced in Experiment 1 were either congruent or incongruent with the auditory target stimuli, thus either supporting or competing with the auditory information. The concurrent presentation of animal pictures with the animal names increased response times compared to the auditory condition, and incongruent visual stimuli increased response times more than congruent ones. Fewer errors were made with congruent compared to incongruent pictures, and error rates of the auditory condition fell in between. When the visual stimulus was presented 750 ms or 500 ms before the auditory stimuli in Experiment 2, auditory and visual congruence effects interacted. In the 500 ms case, visually congruent stimuli decreased error rates in auditory incongruent trials. Conversely, visually incongruent stimuli decreased error rates on auditory incongruent trials at 750 ms. This reversal of effects suggests a positive priming effect at 500 ms and a semantic inhibition of return effect at 750 ms. Taken together, these findings indicate that cross-modal priming is at least partially different from multisensory integration.

This study explores the voluntary switching of auditory selective attention using more natural stimuli and complex acoustic conditions. Building on previous categorization tasks with single-word stimuli, we introduce unpredictable matrix sentences in German to simulate more realistic auditory environments. While the overall results were similar to previous versions, no strong effect of reorienting the auditory attention was found. Interaction effects in error rates still suggest that switching auditory attention is more demanding than remaining focused on the same target. The results further show a benefit in reaction of preparing attention, since reaction times were highest for target words at the beginning of the sentence and decreased for later target onsets. Findings further suggest an opposite trend in error rates, where target words in the beginning yield fewer errors than target words in the middle or end of a sentence in switch trials (8.9% vs 15.7% vs 14.7%), especially when the distractor is played later than the target. Taken together, this approach offers a paradigm for investigating auditory attention in more complex acoustic scenarios, advancing research on auditory perception in dynamic room acoustic environments.

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.