Nelson, Wt-1 Monitoring the Simultaneous Presentation of Spatialized Speech Signals in a Virtual Acoustic Environment

The effect of spatial auditory information on a listener’s ability to detect, identify, and monitor multiple simultaneous speech signals was evaluated using virtual audio technology. Factorial combinations of three variables the number of localized speech signals, the location of the speech signals around the horizontal plane, and the sex of the talker were employed using a within-subjects design. Participants were required to detect the presentation of a critical speech signal among a background of non-signal speech events. Results indicated that the spatialization of simultaneous speech signals (1) increased the percentage of correctly detected and identified critical speech signals and (2) did not affect the response times of correctly detected signals. Implications for the use of this technology as an applied interface are discussed.