Announcing the 2nd Special Session for I3DA 2025!!! SPECIAL SESSION 2: “Applications of advanced audio reproduction in the areas of perception and cognition ” – Chairperson: Nicola Prodi, University of Ferrara, Italy.

The blending of advanced multichannel spatialized audio reproduction with virtual reality has granted the possibility to develop virtual scenes that either closely mimic real conditions or fit desired scenarios in a totally virtual paradigm. In parallel with these technological developments also a search for a fruitful and epistemologically valid way of employing such resources has been undertaken. Research in the areas of perception and cognition has thus been boosted, for instance in the study of the basic mechanisms by which audition functions, or in the study of various cognitive processes, from core executive functions such as memory and attention to more high level processes such as speech comprehension and reasoning. In addition, reaction of humans to peculiar or even critical audiovisual conditions can be based on similar premises.

This session aims to host presentations that deal with the design, implementation and use of advanced simulation platforms with special potentials on spatialized audio which are focused on, but not limited to, the areas of perception and cognition. Case studies that involve tests with target populations of different kind are welcomed as well as more methodological contributions on characteristics, efficacy and limits of the systems conceived for the various types of applications. Moreover, theoretical contributions on the conceptual framework by which ecological validity and systems’ layout are assessed are also within the scopes of the session.

Keywords: spatial sound, perception, cognition, ecological validity

Session Chair:

Nicola Prodi graduated cum laude in physics at the University of Bologna and earned the PhD at the University of Ferrara where he is now Associate Professor at the Department of Engineering. He is also teaching at the University of Padova and at the Conservatory of Music in Ferrara. His main research interests include both the physical aspects of sound in enclosures, such as propagation and interaction with acoustical materials, and the perceptual ones, that is how sound is received, interpreted and what are its effects on listeners. In particular his current studies concern psychoacoustics and sound spatialization, intelligibility of speech and listening effort and the effects of noise on cognitive and physiological processes. He is also studying noise in the context of multimodal interaction with other indoor environmental quality stressors.