A detailed inquiry of the differences between headphones and loudspeakers influences on dynamic postural task performance

This study examined the impact of sound variations and audio delivery methods on decision-making during a dynamic balance task. Twenty-four young adults (14 females, aged 24-31) wore an HTC Vive headset and avoided a virtual ball based on visual cues. We manipulated the environment by introducing congruent (sounds coincide with the visual rule) or incongruent (sounds may or may not coincide with the visual rule) and comparing multimodal (visual and congruent sounds) to unimodal (visual or congruent sounds only) stimuli presentation. Four audio delivery methods were tested: loudspeakers, headphones, passthrough, and room simulation. We quantified reaction time (RT) and accuracy (choosing the correct direction to move) from the head movement.
Two files are attached: the kinematics dataset (head movement, RT and accuracy per condition) and the demographics dataset.