Interactive 3D audio: Enhancing awareness of details in immersive soundscapes?

Spatial audio and the possibility of interacting with the audio environment is thought to increase listeners' attention to details in a soundscape. This work examines if interactive 3D audio enhances listeners' ability to recall details in a soundscape. Nine different soundscapes were constructed and presented in either mono, stereo, 3D, or interactive 3D, and performance was evaluated by asking factual questions about details in the audio.

Results show that spatial cues can increase attention to background sounds while reducing attention to narrated text, indicating that spatial audio can be constructed to guide listeners' attention.