The Posner cueing task is a classic experimental paradigm in cognitive science for measuring visual attention orienting abilities. Recently, it was suggested that this paradigm can be adapted in virtual reality (e.g. in an immersive and ecological environment) to evaluate the effectiveness of perceptual stimuli in directing attention and by extension to study the underlying cognitive processes. In this study, auditory and visual endogenous cue were used to voluntary orient attention at 360 • . Two groups of participants (N=33 and N=28) equipped with a virtual reality headset including integrated eye-tracking performed a modified version of the Posner cueing task in a 360 • immersive environment. In this task, participants had to destroy space objects, as quickly as possible, through eye interaction. Predictive visual or auditory informed participants about target location. The results show that these endogenous cues significantly improve performance even if the object to be destroyed occurred outside the visual field or through a mirror. This experiment provides one of the first demonstrations that attentional orienting mechanism can improve performances of visual information processing in an immersive and ecological 360 • environment where information can appear in rear space. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → HCI design and evaluation methods; Virtual reality.

The virtual reality (VR) has nowadays numerous applications in training, education, and rehabilitation. To efficiently present the immersive 3D stimuli, we need to understand how spatial attention is oriented in VR. The efficiency of different cues can be compared using the Posner paradigm. In this study, we designed an ecological environment where participants were presented with a modified version of the Posner cueing paradigm. Twenty subjects equipped with an eye-tracking system and VR HMD performed a sandwich preparation task. They were asked to assemble the ingredients which could be either endogenously and exogenously cued in both auditory and visual modalities. The results showed that all valid cues made participants react faster. While directional arrow (visual endogenous) and 3D sound (auditory exogenous) oriented attention globally to the entire cued hemifield, the vocal instruction (auditory endogenous) and object highlighting (visual exogenous) allowed more local orientation, in a specific region of space. No differences in gaze shift initiation nor time to fixate the target were found suggesting the covert orienting. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Virtual reality; HCI design and evaluation methods.

The virtual reality (VR) has nowadays numerous applications in training, education, and rehabilitation. To efficiently present the immersive 3D stimuli, we need to understand how spatial attention is oriented in VR. The efficiency of different cues can be compared using the Posner paradigm. In this study, we designed an ecological environment where participants were presented with a modified version of the Posner cueing paradigm. Twenty subjects equipped with an eye-tracking system and VR HMD performed a sandwich preparation task. They were asked to assemble the ingredients which could be either endogenously and exogenously cued in both auditory and visual modalities. The results showed that all valid cues made participants react faster. While directional arrow (visual endogenous) and 3D sound (auditory exogenous) oriented attention globally to the entire cued hemifield, the vocal instruction (auditory endogenous) and object highlighting (visual exogenous) allowed more local orientation, in a specific region of space. No differences in gaze shift initiation nor time to fixate the target were found suggesting the covert orienting. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Virtual reality; HCI design and evaluation methods.

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