Effects of auditory distance cues and reverberation on spatial perception and listening strategies

Spatial hearing—the brain’s ability to identify sound origins using auditory cues—is inherently multisensory, integrating vision, hearing, and proprioception to reduce uncertainty and support adaptive interaction with the environment. While simplified experimental paradigms have advanced our understanding, their limited ecological validity limits real-world applicability. This study investigates how listener movement, reverberation, and distance affect localisation accuracy in more naturalistic settings. Participants performed an active localisation task without prescribed listening strategies, in either anechoic or reverberant conditions. Sound sources were positioned around them in both horizontal and vertical planes, at varying distances. Results show increased head movement in reverberant environments, suggesting an adaptive response to degraded binaural cues. While distance did not influence listening strategies, it significantly affected localisation accuracy. These findings highlight the importance of considering ecological factors when studying spatial hearing and suggest that natural listener behaviour plays a key role in maintaining spatial accuracy under different reverberant conditions.