Attentional orienting in virtual reality using endogenous and exogenous cues in auditory and visual modalities

Abstract

The virtual reality (VR) has nowadays numerous applications in training, education, and rehabilitation. To efficiently present the immersive 3D stimuli, we need to understand how spatial attention is oriented in VR. The efficiency of different cues can be compared using the Posner paradigm. In this study, we designed an ecological environment where participants were presented with a modified version of the Posner cueing paradigm. Twenty subjects equipped with an eye-tracking system and VR HMD performed a sandwich preparation task. They were asked to assemble the ingredients which could be either endogenously and exogenously cued in both auditory and visual modalities. The results showed that all valid cues made participants react faster. While directional arrow (visual endogenous) and 3D sound (auditory exogenous) oriented attention globally to the entire cued hemifield, the vocal instruction (auditory endogenous) and object highlighting (visual exogenous) allowed more local orientation, in a specific region of space. No differences in gaze shift initiation nor time to fixate the target were found suggesting the covert orienting. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Virtual reality; HCI design and evaluation methods.

Promoting Reality Awareness in Virtual Reality through Proxemics

“…Human attention is limited [2,27], so the use of alerts to notify people needs to be carefully designed to both alert and direct people's attention to situations or objects present in both the interface and/or the outside world [39]. Notifications are commonly sub-divided into two categories: push and pull [5].…”

Accuracy and precision of stimulus timing and reaction times with Unreal Engine and SteamVR

“…Furthermore, we developed and tested the method only for standard keyboard input and did not include support for the HTC Vive's motion controllers. Motions controllers are increasingly used to investigate naturalistic behavior, as they allow to track the hand movements of the participant [e.g., 52,53]. Future research needs to assess timing errors related to motion controllers.…”

Attentional orienting in real and virtual 360-degree environments

“…The results [Soret et al 2019] revealed a main validity effect (faster RT in the valid condition compared to invalid condition) showing that Posner's paradigm is transferable in VR. We also observed that while flash and voice instruction seems to effectively direct a person's attention to the desired region of space, the directional arrow and spatialized sound seemed to have more difficulties directing attention to a specific location and instead direct attention to a particular hemifield (left or right).…”

“…We performed the preliminary study [Soret et al 2019] where we used a modified version of Posner's paradigm with a head-mounted display considering the visual and auditory modalities. We tested the transferability of Posner paradigm in VR.…”