Reverberation enhances onset dominance in sound localization

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2018-02, Vol.143 (2), p.786-793
• Main Authors: Stecker, G. Christopher, Moore, Travis M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; Cues; Humans; Judgment; Motion; Psychological and Physiological Acoustics; Sound; Sound Localization; Time Factors; Vibration
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.5023221

Temporal variation in sensitivity to sound-localization cues was measured in anechoic conditions and in simulated reverberation using the temporal weighting function (TWF) paradigm [Stecker and Hafter (2002). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 112, 1046–1057]. Listeners judged the locations of Gabor click trains (4 kHz center frequency, 5-ms interclick interval) presented from an array of loudspeakers spanning 360° azimuth. Targets ranged ±56.25° across trials. Individual clicks within each train varied by an additional ±11.25° to allow TWF calculation by multiple regression. In separate conditions, sounds were presented directly or in the presence of simulated reverberation: 13 orders of lateral reflection were computed for a 10 m × 10 m room ( R T 60 ≊ 300   ms) and mapped to the appropriate locations in the loudspeaker array. Results reveal a marked increase in perceptual weight applied to the initial click in reverberation, along with a reduction in the impact of late-arriving sound. In a second experiment, target stimuli were preceded by trains of “conditioner” sounds with or without reverberation. Effects were modest and limited to the first few clicks in a train, suggesting that impacts of reverberant pre-exposure on localization may be limited to the processing of information from early reflections.