Examining the Auditory Selective Attention Switch in a Child-Suited Virtual Reality Classroom Environment

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 19, pp. 16569

Abstract

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.

Authors 7

1. Carolin Breuer corresponding Aachen Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

2. Karin Loh Aachen Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

3. Larissa Leist

   University of Kaiserslautern · Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau

   Affiliation as printed

   Cognitive and Developmental Psychology, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

4. Stephan Fremerey

   Technische Universität Ilmenau

   Affiliation as printed

   Audiovisual Technology Group, Technische Universität Ilmenau, 98693 Ilmenau, Germany

5. Alexander Raake

   Technische Universität Ilmenau

   Affiliation as printed

   Audiovisual Technology Group, Technische Universität Ilmenau, 98693 Ilmenau, Germany

6. Maria Klatte

   University of Kaiserslautern · Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau

   Affiliation as printed

   Cognitive and Developmental Psychology, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

7. Janina Fels Aachen Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany