Examining Auditory Selective Attention in a Classroom Setting using Audiovisual Virtual Reality
* Presenting author
Abstract:
As part of the AUDICTIVE priority program, the overall objective of the ECoClass-VR project is to investigate the cognitive behavior of children in virtual, close to real-life settings. In the first stage of this project, three validated paradigms focusing on different aspects of auditory cognition are examined and extended towards audiovisual virtual reality. One of these paradigms deals with the investigation of auditory selective attention. Although the intentional switching of auditory selective attention has been thoroughly investigated in previous work, the influence of audiovisual stimulation and virtual reality on cognitive performance is of great interest. The aim of the presented study is to derive and validate a new audiovisual paradigm, which takes place in a virtual classroom setting using computer generated models of humans at the sound source positions as opposed to loudspeakers. The visual presentation is realized through a head mounted display while the acoustic stimuli are reproduced using binaural technology.