This study compared human ability in processing and detecting concurrent versus successive sound stimuli and the degrees of angular separation between sources. Bursts of broadband white noise at 85 dB (SPL) were presented with duration of either 1000, 300, 100, 30, or 10 ms. Angles between speakers for each duration time were at 4.5°, 9.0°, 18°, 27°, and 36°. Two pairs of bursts were presented at a time, either simultaneously or sequentially. Participants were to discriminate whether the first pair of bursts had a larger angular separation between sources than the second pair. Listeners’ performance were almost similar between concurrent versus successive stimuli when the durations were 1000, 300, and 100 ms. However, as the duration of the stimuli dropped to 30 and 10 ms, so did the performance in the concurrent condition. In addition, as the angles between the two speakers grew farther apart in both conditions, the degrees of jnd (MAA) were also increasing. Results will be discussed in terms of the auditory system’s ability to resolve spatially distributed sources that are set off either concurrently or sequentially.
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