Visual size cues override matching audio reverberation judgments

Evidence

Thus one often hears people referring to the sound of a “big” or “large” acoustic as opposed to a “small” one when they are really referring to the reverberation time. Interestingly, now that it is possible to provide a long reverberation time in a small room, via electronic reverberation enhancement systems, with good quality, people have found that long reverberation times in a small room sound “wrong” because the visual cues contradict the audio ones. That is, the listener, on the basis of the apparent size of the space and their experience, expects a shorter reverberation time than they are hearing. Apparently closing one’s eyes restores the illusion by removing the distracting visual cue! — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1843

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to McGurk effect and multimodal perception research showing vision shapes audition; also to the author’s broader psychoacoustics of spatial hearing theme.
• SHARE: A fun concrete demo (close your eyes in an electronically reverberated small room) for anyone interested in psychoacoustics or concert hall design.