This study examined the effects of auditory information on object search performance in a virtual reality environment. A binaural auditory display based on the Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) of SAMRAI HATS was used to prove auditory information. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, observers performed object search tasks under three auditory conditions: (1) monophonic pink noise, (2) spatialized pink noise, and (3) no sound. The results showed a significantly shorter search time under condition (2), indicating that spatial auditory cues facilitated object search. Statistical analysis revealed that the shortening effect was significant at ±60° (peripheral vision field), limited at 0° and ±35° (central field), and reduced at 180° (rear), suggesting reduced effectiveness of auditory guidance for rear-located objects, possibly owing to front–back perceptual ambiguity in headphone-based localization. In Experiment 2, four types of sounds (pink noise, piano tones, unrelated speech, and simple phrases such as “this way”) were spatialized. No significant differences in search times were observed, suggesting that the spatial characteristics of auditory information, rather than semantic content, primarily contributed to search performance. These results highlight the complementary role of auditory spatial cues in peripheral vision and provide insights into spatial integration in multimodal perception.
Yamataka et al. (Wed,) studied this question.