Article
On the usage of pupillometry for assessing the subject's response towards acoustic features changes (en)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
In listening tests, the subject's response is commonly captured using different methods such as questionnaires, interviews, or by rating specific parameters. While these methods have been established in research, disadvantages linked to their usage are present as well. The listener's immersive state could be interrupted, the response might be forgotten by the end of a trial or a misunderstanding of the specific terminology could occur. As a result, alternative methods that could capture the real-time response without requiring specialized expertise, such as with biosignal measurements, are of great interest.Pupillometry is a widely spread tool that has successfully been implemented to assess the cognitive load, attention span, or listening effort of test subjects. This motivates investigating its usefulness in the context of psychoacoustics, room acoustics, and spatial audio, where the research is relatively scarce. This contribution discusses these use cases and presents the work towards an evaluation approach. In a preliminary study, the listener's pupillary response was measured for the acoustic stimuli variation in an oddball paradigm. Three different features were alternated, namely, source direction, loudness, and room. The results are discussed concerning the test design, specifically the test environment, task type and complexity, and stimuli characteristics.