Auditory Perception of Unimpeded Passage

Auditory Guided Arm and Whole Body Movements in Young Infants

“…Infants in the present study were younger, the task was different, and the main perceptual source of information that was used to guide action was auditory instead of visual. In general, use of auditory perception for action has been a neglected research area in the ecological tradition (but see Russell & Turvey, 1999). The present findings corroborate the results of previous studies that newborns and older infants can differentiate between auditory information from left versus right (e.g., Morrongiello & Rocca, 1987;Muir & Field, 1979;Muir et al, 1999;Perris & Clifton, 1988;Wertheimer, 1961), and that they from the age of about six months can localize auditory information for reaching up to 12-14° precisely (Ashmead et al, 1987;Morrongiello, 1988;Morrongiello et al, 1994).…”

“…However, adult studies on the use of auditory information for action are rare. For example, Russell and Turvey (1999) posed the question of whether sighted observers with eyes closed could judge correctly whether a wall was wide enough for unimpeded passage based on perception of the distances between a sound-emitting object. Results indicated a limited form of auditory affordance perception: listeners could perceive, with acceptable tolerance, a sound source's azimuth relative to the body's boundaries.…”

The Doppler effect is not what you think it is: Dramatic pitch change due to dynamic intensity change

“…Discrete changes in intensity and frequency often indicate entry of different sources, but continuous changes almost always indicate single-source continuity (Rogers & Bregman, 1998). Considerable research suggests that humans and animals also use rate and pattern of changing intensity to aid in navigation and judgments of auditory source localization (Ashmead, Davis, & Northington,1995;Lee, 1990;Lee & Simmons, 1995;Lee, van der Weel, Hitchcock, Matejowsky, & Pettigrew, 1992;Neuhoff, 1998Neuhoff, , 1999Neuhoff, , 2001Rosenblum, Gordon, & Jarquin, 2000;Russell & Turvey, 1999;Schenkman & Jansson, 1986;Shaw et al, 1991;Stoffregen & Pittenger, 1995). The interaction of pitch and loudness and the large magnitude of pitch change for continuous intensity stimuli suggest that dynamic pitch may enhance such localization judgments.…”

What Are Auditory Objects?

“…We are, for example, able to perceive the trajectory of an approaching sound source, (Neuhoff 2004) and the time to contact-that is, the time at which we will collidewith a sound source that is moving towards us (Schiff and Oldak 1990). We are good at hearing whether an invisible object making a noise is within reach; (Carello et al 1998) and we are able to hear just as well as we can see whether a gap between a sound source and a vertical surface is wide enough to pass through (Russell and Turvey 1999). We can identify the material composition of an object from the sound of an impact, (Wildes and Richards 1988) and perceive the force of the impact (Freed 1990).…”