University of Louisville
Directional Sound Localization Adaptation in Realistic Acoustic Environments
Institution
University of Louisville
Faculty Advisor/ Mentor
Pavel Zahorik
Abstract
The precedence effect is a well known phenomenon in the area of psychological acoustics. Previous experiments have looked at the precedence effect in relatively unrealistic situations. This experiment examines the precedence effect in more natural settings with multiple echoes. Because it has been found in previous studies that there is a build-up of the precedence effect over the course of a conditioning train with a single echo, it is of interest to determine if this effect persists in more natural settings with multiple echoes. In this experiment, subjects were asked to perform a forced choice left/right spatial discrimination tasks using virtual acoustics that modeled a real room with multiple echoes and reverberation. Conditioning stimuli consisted of a twelve click conditioning train followed by a test click. Non conditioned stimuli, which consisted only of a test click, were also presented in the same manner. A significant difference in task performance was observed between the two stimulus conditions. These observed differences in performance were most likely due to echo suppression build-up resulting from the conditioning train presented before the test click. A pilot study was run during the summer resulting in the current study that utilizes a wider range of stimuli echo delays and addresses issues of subject bias.
Directional Sound Localization Adaptation in Realistic Acoustic Environments
The precedence effect is a well known phenomenon in the area of psychological acoustics. Previous experiments have looked at the precedence effect in relatively unrealistic situations. This experiment examines the precedence effect in more natural settings with multiple echoes. Because it has been found in previous studies that there is a build-up of the precedence effect over the course of a conditioning train with a single echo, it is of interest to determine if this effect persists in more natural settings with multiple echoes. In this experiment, subjects were asked to perform a forced choice left/right spatial discrimination tasks using virtual acoustics that modeled a real room with multiple echoes and reverberation. Conditioning stimuli consisted of a twelve click conditioning train followed by a test click. Non conditioned stimuli, which consisted only of a test click, were also presented in the same manner. A significant difference in task performance was observed between the two stimulus conditions. These observed differences in performance were most likely due to echo suppression build-up resulting from the conditioning train presented before the test click. A pilot study was run during the summer resulting in the current study that utilizes a wider range of stimuli echo delays and addresses issues of subject bias.