Reverberation cues underlying virtual auditory distance perception for a frontal source.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Laboratory psychoacoustic experiment in human listeners
PubMed 40928551 · doi:10.1121/10.0039251
What was done
Listeners with eyes closed in a soundproof booth evaluated the perceived distance of a frontal sound source simulated over headphones across distances from 0.5 to 10 m in a virtual room. Three source signal types (pink noise, white noise, and speech) were equalized in broadband received level to assess the role of room-induced temporal, spectral, and binaural cues.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values or correlation coefficients. Distance estimates changed similarly across simulated distances for all three source types. The direct-to-reverberant ratio (DRR) yielded the highest correlation with distance estimates among individual cues, followed by spectral balance/centroid. A systematic bias occurred across sources: reported distances were farthest for pink noise, intermediate for speech, and closest for white noise. DRR and spectral balance accounted for differences between the noise types, but not between speech and noise.
Why it matters
Identifies the direct-to-reverberant ratio as the primary cue listeners rely on for distance perception when overall sound level cues are removed, informing spatial audio and virtual acoustics modeling.
Limits
The abstract omits sample size, listener characteristics, and quantitative metrics (such as correlation values or effect sizes). The experiment was restricted to static frontal sources in a single simulated room over headphones with eyes closed, which does not reflect dynamic or multisensory real-world listening.