Perceived Distraction and Annoyance in a VR Listening Task

Abstract

While listening to Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) in Virtual Reality (VR), background events can reduce both task performance and comfort. We ran an exploratory study with n = 5 participants who listened to ECA dialogues in a virtual open‑plan office while performing a dual‑task paradigm (keyword‑detection and recall). Distractors varied by sound source (person vs. object) and environmental fit, where congruent distractors (office‑specific stimuli, everyday stimuli) fit the virtual workspace, and incongruent distractors (extraordinary stimuli) violated it. Descriptively, distraction and annoyance ratings showed a partial divergence: incongruent distractors were perceived as most distracting, whereas office-congruent object sounds produced the highest annoyance ratings. These preliminary findings suggest that distraction and annoyance may constitute distinct dimensions of user experience.