Binaural sound reduces reaction time in a virtual reality search task

Salient features in a visual search task can direct attention and increase competency on these tasks. Simple cues, such as color change in a salient feature, called the "pop-out effect" can increase task solving efficiency [6]. Previous work has shown that nonspatial auditory signals temporally synched with a pop-out effect can improve reaction time in a visual search task, called the "pip and pop effect" [14]. This paper describes a within-group study on the effect of audiospatial attention in virtual reality given a 360-degree visual search. Three cue conditions were compared (no sound, stereo, and binaural), with rising degrees of difficulty by increasing the set size. The results (n=10) indicate a statistically significant difference in reaction time between the three conditions. Overall, in spite of the small sample size, our results seem to indicate that binaural audio renders a clear advantage to the spatial visual processing.