Individual listener differences in azimuthal front-back reversals

Abstract

Thirty-two listeners participated in experiments involving five filtered noises when listeners kept their eyes open or closed, for stimuli of short or long duration, and for stimuli that were presented at random locations or in a largely rotational procession. Individual differences in the proportion of front-back reversals (FBRs) were measured. There were strong positive correlations between the proportion of FBRs for any one filtered noise, but not when FBRs were compared across different filtered-noise conditions. The results suggest that, for each individual listener, the rate of FBRs is stable for any one filtered noise, but not across filtered noises.

FIG. 1.

The six loudspeaker locations on the 24-loudspeaker azimuth array used in the experiment.

FIG. 2.

The number of F → “B” (black bars) and B → “F” (white bars) reversals (out of a maximum of 60) for each of the 32 listeners for condition 1 (i.e., Random, 200-ms, Eyes-Open) for the three filtered noises [(A): LF, 2-O; (B): LF, 1/10-O; and (C): HF, 1/10-O] producing the most FBRs. The data in (A) are arranged in left–right order by the number of B → “F” reversals.

FIG. 3.

The number of F → “B” and B → “F” reversals (out of a maximum of 60) for each of the 32 listeners for condition 2 (i.e., Random, 200-ms, Eyes-Closed) for the LF,2-O filtered noise [compared to Fig. 2(A)]. X axis is the same as in Fig. 2.

FIG. 4.

Scatter diagram (32 listeners) comparing condition 1 [Fig. 2(A)] and condition 2 (Fig. 3) data for the LF,2-O filtered noise (F → “B”: closed circles; B → “F”: open squares). Straight lines indicate linear regression.