AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION OF EARLY REFLECTIONS IN VIRTUAL ROOMS

Chen, Junting; Williams, Duncan; Fazenda, Bruno

Abstract

This study investigates the perceptual sensitivity to early reflection changes across different spatial directions in a virtual reality (VR) environment. Using an ABX discrimination paradigm , participants evaluated speech stimuli convolved with third-order Ambisonic room impulse responses under three position reversal (Left-Right, Front-Back, and Floor-Ceiling) and three reverberation conditions (RT60 = 1.0 s, 0.6 s, and 0.2 s). Binomi-al tests revealed that participants consistently detected early reflection differences in the Left-Right reversal, while discrimination performance in the other two directions remained at or near chance. This result can be explained by the higher acuity and lower localisation blur found for the human auditory system. A two-way ANOVA confirmed a significant main effect of spatial position (p = 0.00685, η² = 0.1605), with no significant effect of reverberation or interaction. The analysis of the binaural room impulse responses showed wave forms and Direct-Reverberant-Ratio differences in the Left-Right reversal position, aligning with perceptual results. However, no definitive causal link between DRR variations and perceptual outcomes can yet be established .

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: DAFX
• Start Date: Sep 2, 2025
• Acceptance Date: May 6, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jun 26, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx25)
• Publisher URL: https://www.dafx.de/paper-archive/