Auditory Spatial Perception: Auditory Localization

Łȩtowski, Tomasz; Letowski, Szymon

doi:10.21236/ada562292

Cited by 34 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 503 publications

(665 reference statements)

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“…However, results highlighted that when looking at the signed error distributions for each session, the arithmetic means or constant errors (CE or accuracy) [29] were not equal to zero. Fig.…”

Section: Localization Errormentioning

confidence: 88%

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The Influence of Headphones on the Localization of External Loudspeaker Sources

Satongar¹,

Pike²,

Lam³

et al. 2015

J. Audio Eng. Soc.

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When validating systems that use headphones to synthesize virtual sound sources, a direct comparison between virtual and real sources is sometimes needed. This paper considers the passive influence of headphones on the sound transmission and perception of external loudspeaker sources, for which physical measurements and behavioral data have been obtained. Physical measurements of the effect of a number of headphone models are given and analyzed using an auditory filter bank and binaural cue extraction. These highlighted that all of the headphones had an effect on localization cues and repositioning had a measurable effect. A localization test was undertaken using one of the best performing headphones from the measurements. It was found that the presence of the headphones caused a small increase in localization error and that the process of judging source location was different, highlighting a possible increase in the complexity of the localization task. INTRODUCTIONThe use of binaural rendering is popular in a number of audio applications-from hearing research [1-3] to entertainment [4,5]. In each application, the specific requirements for the performance of a binaural system will be slightly different although generally, the aim is to induce the perception of intended auditory events as accurately as possible. Designing an assessment methodology that validates a binaural system within its intended application is often a difficult task. A common metric for a binaural system is the ability to produce a virtual sound source that is indistinguishable from a real sound source. Indirect comparisons have been investigated, for example, by Minnaar et al. [6] and Møller et al. [7,8] in which non-dynamic binaural simulation and real loudspeaker localization tasks were considered in separated experiments. However, for direct comparisons where real and virtual loudspeakers are presented simultaneously, the validation of headphone-based binaural systems against a real loudspeaker reference can be problematic. The listener must wear the headphones throughout the experiment, which will affect the sound transmission from the external loudspeakers. A number of discrimination studies have involved direct comparison of real sources with headphone-delivered virtual sources [9-13] as well as some recent localization tests [14,15] and loudness equalization studies [16,17]. The passive use of headphones may have a significant effect on the perception of the external loudspeaker and therefore cause an unknown and possibly directionally dependent bias. Hartmann and Wittenberg [10] noted that wearing headphones appeared to affect the listeners' ability to distinguish between front and back, although they also state that they were not aware of its effect on experiments in the azimuthal plane. To highlight the importance of the problem, Erbes et al.[18] presented work on the development of an advanced headphone system specifically for the field of binaural reproduction.This study investigates whether headphones mounted on a listener will ...

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Section: Localization Errormentioning

confidence: 88%

“…There have been a number of proposed methods for reporting perceived direction of a sound source in a localization test; a summary can be found in [29]. In this experiment the egocentric method of head pointing was used by tracking the participants' head rotation in 6 degrees-of-freedom (DoF).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Headphones on the Localization of External Loudspeaker Sources

Satongar¹,

Pike²,

Lam³

et al. 2015

J. Audio Eng. Soc.

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“…Specifically, the acoustic shadow of the head results in a lower intensity at the ear farthest away from the source (IID) and a time delay between the nearest ear and the ear farthest away from the source (ITD). IID is the dominant localization cue for middle-to-high frequencies, whereas ITD is the dominant localization cue for low frequencies (Dobreva, O'Neill, & Paige, 2011;Letowski & Letowski, 2012;Middlebrooks & Green, 1991). The complementary effects of these cues when used in combination can facilitate judgments of auditory spatial localization on the horizontal plane (Stevens & Newman, 1936).…”

Section: Effects Of Acoustic Intensity On Sound Source Localizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This suggests a greater magnitude of spatial ambiguity when stimuli were presented from these locations. The absence of head movement would have restricted participants' ability to resolve this spatial ambiguity (Letowski & Letowski, 2012), resulting in slower localization response times. While the accuracy for Speakers 2 and 8 was generally poor, the accuracy for Speakers 1 and 9 was worse.…”

Section: Effects Of Sound Source Spatial Locationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fast and accurate sound source localization is an adaptive behavior that enables organisms to efficiently locate and prioritize stimuli that pose a potential threat (Letowski & Letowski, 2012)-for example, looming (approaching) sound-emitting objects in motion. One important acoustic cue associated with auditory motion is a continuous change of intensity that perceptually is experienced as a change in loudness (Jenison, 1997;Olsen, 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

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A “looming bias” in spatial hearing? Effects of acoustic intensity and spectrum on categorical sound source localization

McCarthy

Olsen

2016

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Continuous increases of acoustic intensity (upramps) can indicate a looming (approaching) sound source in the environment, whereas continuous decreases of intensity (down-ramps) can indicate a receding sound source. From psychoacoustic experiments, an "adaptive perceptual bias" for up-ramp looming tonal stimuli has been proposed (Neuhoff, 1998). This theory postulates that (1) up-ramps are perceptually salient because of their association with looming and potentially threatening stimuli in the environment; (2) tonal stimuli are perceptually salient because of an association with single and potentially threatening biological sound sources in the environment, relative to white noise, which is more likely to arise from dispersed signals and nonthreatening/nonbiological sources (wind/ocean). In the present study, we extrapolated the "adaptive perceptual bias" theory and investigated its assumptions by measuring sound source localization in response to acoustic stimuli presented in azimuth to imply looming, stationary, and receding motion in depth. Participants (N = 26) heard three directions of intensity change (up-ramps, down-ramps, and steady state, associated with looming, receding, and stationary motion, respectively) and three levels of acoustic spectrum (a 1-kHz pure tone, the tonal vowel /ә/, and white noise) in a within-subjects design.We first hypothesized that if up-ramps are "perceptually salient" and capable of eliciting adaptive responses, then they would be localized faster and more accurately than downramps. This hypothesis was supported. However, the results did not support the second hypothesis. Rather, the white-noise and vowel conditions were localized faster and more accurately than the pure-tone conditions. These results are discussed in the context of auditory and visual theories of motion perception, auditory attentional capture, and the spectral causes of spatial ambiguity.

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Rapid identification of sound direction in blind footballers

2019

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auditory stimuli between simple and choice RT tasks. For instance, Kida et al. (2005) reported that baseball experts had shorter RTs than tennis players and nonathletes in a Go/Nogo RT task but not in a simple RT task. Blind individuals also showed superior auditory choice RTs compared with sighted individuals in a divided attention task (Kujala et al. 1997) and a spatial attention task (Chen et al. 2006). Moreover, early-blind individuals had shorter RTs than sighted individuals in selective attention tasks, but not in a simple RT task, indicating enhanced attentional performance in early-blind individuals (Collignon and De Volder, 2009; Collignon et al. 2006). Based on previous studies, it was assumed that blind footballers with visual impairments would have shorter auditory choice RTs than sighted nonathletes. Given the superiority of blind footballers in choice RT tasks, it should be determined whether their shorter choice RTs are due to rapid identification of sound direction or faster processing of auditory input and motor output. However, it remains unknown whether blind footballers have shorter auditory simple RTs and choice RTs than sighted athletes, who are required to produce a faster response largely in the visual modality. Taken together, the present study aimed to compare simple RT, choice RT, and response accuracy among blind footballers, sighted footballers, and nonathletes. We hypothesized that blind footballers would have shorter RTs than sighted footballers in the choice RT tasks, but not in the simple RT task. We also hypothesized that blind footballers would show higher overall response accuracy and less front-back confusion. Methods Participants Participants were blind footballers (n = 10; mean age = 27.6 ± 5.3 years; playing experience = 8.0 ± 4.2 years), sighted college footballers (n = 11; mean age = 19.2 ± 1.2 years; playing experience = 12.4 ± 2.2 years), and healthy sighted nonathletes (n = 11; mean age = 22.7 ± 2.9 years; no regular exercise or training), based on the experimental design of the previous study (Campayo-Pierna et al. 2017). The sample size was based on an a priori power analysis for the within-between interaction in a repeated measures ANOVA (estimated effect size of f = .25, α =.

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Auditory Spatial Perception: Auditory Localization

Cited by 34 publications

References 503 publications

The Influence of Headphones on the Localization of External Loudspeaker Sources

The Influence of Headphones on the Localization of External Loudspeaker Sources

A “looming bias” in spatial hearing? Effects of acoustic intensity and spectrum on categorical sound source localization

Rapid identification of sound direction in blind footballers

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