Contextual factors in judging auditory immersion

Listening experience is a product of complex cognitive processes which are influenced by circumstantial changes, also known as contextual factors, which result in perceptual effects. This chapter introduces two contextual factors that modulate listeners’ judgment on auditory immersion: cultural background and listening environment. Firstly, a group known to value ‘holistic’ assessments and judge ‘inter-dependently’ appears to be different from the ‘analytic’ and ‘independent’ group in understanding auditory spaciousness and related semantics. A personality formed within a given cultural background may differentiate conceptualization of auditory immersion. Secondly, a listening environment significantly influences listeners’ judgment of their sense of being enveloped by the reproduced sound fields. What one experiences in a given listening environment may not be the same as in other rooms even with commensurate immersive audio systems.