Binaural pinna disparity: another auditory localization cue

Searle, C. L.; Braida, Louis D.; Cuddy, D. R.; Davis, Martin

doi:10.1121/1.380442

Cited by 108 publications

(43 citation statements)

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“…Further, the lateral part of the human ear canal is slated about 15° upwards while the medial part of the canal is slanted downwards, providing potentially additional mechanism for differentiating sounds coming from above and from below (Shaw, 1996). These differences create additional spectral cues that are related to the monaural cues and aid localization in the horizontal plane (Searle et al, 1975;Shaw, 1974;.…”

Section: Monaural Cuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Auditory Spatial Perception: Auditory Localization

Łȩtowski¹,

Letowski²

2012

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Section: Monaural Cuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Auditory Spatial Perception: Auditory Localization

Łȩtowski¹,

Letowski²

2012

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“…Evidence supporting this is in the form of retained localization function for complex sounds displaced on the MVP (e.g., Hebrank & Wright, 1974). In that plane, "classical" interaural differences are absent; the system relies on spectral changes that may be induced by each pinna, along with interaural spectral differences due to structural disparities between the two pinnae (Searle, Braida, Cuddy, & Davis, 1975). Butler and Humanski (1992) also found discrimination in the LVP for a 3-kHz lowpass noise that approached the proficiency for highpass.…”

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confidence: 93%

Available response choices affect localization of sound

Perrett

Noble

1995

Perception & Psychophysics

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Successful replication of an experiment by Butler and Humanski (1992) showed that listeners are able to proficiently localize sources on a lateral vertical plane on the basis of interaural differences alone, When a lateral horizontal array was included in the test setup, that finding was replicated only for a broadband signal interacting with the pinna, not for ones (lowpass and pure tone) providing only interaural differences. Cross-plane errors conforming to "cones of confusion" were observed for those latter sounds. In a second experiment, response options were made more unconstrained, which clarified the nature of the cross-plane confusions. Lowpass signals from lateral vertical plane sources tend to be heard at or close to the horizon. Measurement of cue values needs to take account of the response options available to listeners, as well as signal properties.Classical theory of sound localization in space has stressed the role of the binaural system. Early research (Stevens & Newman, 1936) showed that the auditory system is sensitive to interaural time differences for lowfrequency sounds and interaural level differences for sounds of high frequency. The low-frequency cue is considered to be largely an effect of time and phase difference detection; the high-frequency cue is the result ofincreasingly sharp acoustic shadowing by the head. In classical theory, the head is assumed to be a perfect sphere, with the ears as holes located at the extremes of a diameter through the sphere (Mills, 1972). Using this model, interaural differences specify the horizontal angle of the sound source to' the left or right of the median vertical plane (MVP). Absence of difference specifies that the source is somewhere on the MVP. Such differences cannot unambiguously specify the vertical angle of the sound source relative to the horizontal plane nor, relatedly, whether it lies forward or rearward of, or above or below, the interaural axis. In normal listening conditions, and with a broadband noise signal, those aspects of spatial whereabouts seemingly not revealed by "classical" interaural differences can nonetheless be distinguished.In a recent report, Butler and Humanski (1992) presented results showing that listeners could accurately discriminate the whereabouts of sound sources displaced at 15 0 intervals in a quadrant above the interaural axisin the lateral vertical plane (LVP). Proficient performance was observed for bursts of 3-kHz highpass filtered noise. Such short wavelength signals interact withThe authors thank Bruce Stevenson for valuable advice about the design of Experiment 2.

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“…There is evidence in the literature on vertical localization that the notion of a high tone in music is not simply a metaphor but is associated with real (although inaccurate) spatial localization: Research exists that shows that higher frequencies are localized as higher in space (Pratt, 1930). It has been suggested by recent researchers (Butler, 1969;Roffler, 1968;Searle, Braida, Cuddy, & Davis, 1975) that this perceptual bias is making use of the fact that the outer ear filters an incoming waveform differently depending on its angle of incidence. Regardless of its cause, however, we have here a phenomenon in which the monaural spectrum is linked to localization.…”

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confidence: 99%

Auditory streaming and vertical localization: Interdependence of “what” and “where” decisions in audition

Bregman

Steiger

1980

Perception & Psychophysics

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When a sequence of two tones is presented over headphones in an ascending or descending order of pitch, it is heard as correspondingly ascending or descending in space. The illusion of spatial change that accompanies pitch change can be induced onto a pair of noise bursts by presenting them in synchrony with the tones. When cues known to produce stream segregation are introduced, the perceived position of the noises is less influenced by the tones. Stream organization is seen to be implicated in the ability to separately localize concurrent sources of sound. This suggests that "what" and "where" decisions are highly interactive and that neurological evidence that suggests separate pathways for these decisions must be interpreted with caution.In 1976, Deutsch and Roll reported an illusion obtained by playing a dichotic tonal sequence composed of three 800-Hz tones followed by two 400-Hz tones to one ear, and, in synchrony, three 400-Hz tones followed by two 800-Hz tones to the other ear. Many listeners heard only one sequence of tones that had the sequence of pitches received by the right ear (e.g., 400, 400, 400, 800, 8(0) but the sequence of positions occupied by the higher frequency, whatever its ear of arrival (e.g., L L L R R). This produced a percept in which, for example, the 400-Hz tone was heard at the left on the first event of the sequence, when in actual fact it had been presented to the right ear. Since the illusion seemed to represent a decoupling of the sources from which the listeners derived positional and pitch information, the authors suggested links between this effect and certain physiological findings that suggest there is a localizing system (the ventral route) and a nearly separate system (the dorsal route) involved in stimulus discrimination (Evans, 1974; Evans & Nelson, 1973a, 1973b. Is this why location and frequency information can be decoupled in the illusion mentioned earlier?One view of these systems might be that each one makes its own decision about the attribute with which it is concerned, and then decisions of the two systems are combined to represent sources of sound. DeutschWe acknowledge the assistance of Mimi Israel in data analysis, and the provision of a synthesizer by Richard Robinson and Lois Henderson. Some of the stimuli were made in the Computer

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Binaural pinna disparity: another auditory localization cue

Cited by 108 publications

References 0 publications

Auditory Spatial Perception: Auditory Localization

Auditory Spatial Perception: Auditory Localization

Available response choices affect localization of sound

Auditory streaming and vertical localization: Interdependence of “what” and “where” decisions in audition

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