Sound(e)scape

The restorative potential of indoor acoustic environments remains underexplored compared to natural outdoor soundscapes. This study investigates how interacting with an indoor soundscape through real-time auralization affects cognitive restoration by integrating electroencephalographic (EEG) measurements, attention performance (Backward Digit Span Test), and self-reported restorativeness. Participants engaged with three acoustically distinct virtual environments, each represented through an impulse response and experienced interactively by vocalizing into the virtual space and hearing the resulting reflections. A repeated-measures design was employed, with randomized exposure order and embedded cognitive stressors (Stroop test) to simulate attentional fatigue between conditions. This work contributes to the design of acoustically restorative indoor spaces and proposes measurable psychoacoustic metrics to guide architectural design.