Abstract
The ability to localize sound sources in three-dimensional space was tested in humans. In Experiment 1, naive subjects listened to noises filtered with subject-specific head-related transfer functions. The tested conditions included the pointing method (head or manual pointing) and the visual environment (VE; darkness or virtual VE). The localization performance was not significantly different between the pointing methods. The virtual VE significantly improved the horizontal precision and reduced the number of front-back confusions. These results show the benefit of using a virtual VE in sound localization tasks. In Experiment 2, subjects were provided with sound localization training. Over the course of training, the performance improved for all subjects, with the largest improvements occurring during the first 400 trials. The improvements beyond the first 400 trials were smaller. After the training, there was still no significant effect of pointing method, showing that the choice of either head- or manual-pointing method plays a minor role in sound localization performance. The results of Experiment 2 reinforce the importance of perceptual training for at least 400 trials in sound localization studies.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahveninen, J., Jääskeläinen, I. P., Raij, T., Bonmassar, G., Devore, S., Hämäläinen, M., et al. (2006). Task-modulated “what” and “where” pathways in human auditory cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103, 14608–14613. doi:10.1073/ pnas.0510480103
Batschelet, E. (1981). Circular statistics in biology. London: Academic Press.
Begault, D. R., Wenzel, E. M., & Anderson, M. R. (2001). Direct comparison of the impact of head tracking, reverberation, and individualized head-related transfer functions on the spatial perception of a virtual speech source. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 49, 904–916.
Bolia, R. S., D’Angelo, W. R., & McKinley, R. L. (1999). Aurally aided visual search in three-dimensional space. Human Factors, 41, 664–669. doi:10.1518/001872099779656789
Bronkhorst, A. W. (1995). Localization of real and virtual sound sources. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 98, 2542–2553. doi:10.1121/1.413219
Carlile, S., Leong, P., & Hyams, S. (1997). The nature and distribution of errors in sound localization by human listeners. Hearing Research, 114, 179–196. doi:10.1016/S0378-5955(97)00161-5
Djelani, T., Pörschmann, C., Sahrhage, J., & Blauert, J. (2000). An interactive virtual-environment generator for psychoacoustic research II: Collection of head-related impulse responses and evaluation of auditory localization. Acta Acustica United With Acustica, 86, 1046–1053.
Efron, B., & Tibshirani, R. (1994). An introduction to the bootstrap. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall/CRC.
Fritz, J. B., Elhilali, M., David, S. V., & Shamma, S. A. (2007). Does attention play a role in dynamic receptive field adaptation to changing acoustic salience in A1? Hearing Research, 229, 186–203. doi:10.1016/j.heares.2007.01.009
Getzmann, S. (2003). The influence of the acoustic context on vertical sound localization in the median plane. Perception & Psychophysics, 65, 1045–1057.
Haber, L., Haber, R. N., Penningroth, S., Novak, K., & Radgowski, H. (1993). Comparison of nine methods of indicating the direction to objects: Data from blind adults. Perception, 22, 35–47. doi:10.1068/p220035
Hawkey, D. J. C., Amitay, S., & Moore, D. R. (2004). Early and rapid perceptual learning. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 1055–1056. doi:10.1038/ nn1315
Heffner, H. E., & Heffner, R. S. (2005). The sound-localization ability of cats. Journal of Neurophysiology, 94, 3653–3655. doi:10.1152/ jn.00720.2005
Hofman, P. M., Van Riswick, J. G., & Van Opstal, A. J. (1998). Relearning sound localization with new ears. Nature Neuroscience, 1, 417–421. doi:10.1038/1633
Hyde, P. S., & Knudsen, E. I. (2001). A topographic instructive signal guides the adjustment of the auditory space map in the optic tectum. Journal of Neuroscience, 21, 8586–8593.
Jones, B., & Kabanoff, B. (1975). Eye movements in auditory space perception. Perception & Psychophysics, 17, 241–245.
Kacelnik, O., Nodal, F. R., Parsons, C. H., & King, A. J. (2006). Training-induced plasticity of auditory localization in adult mammals. PLoS Biology, 4, e71. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0040071
Knudsen, E. I. (1994). Supervised learning in the brain. Journal of Neuro science, 14, 3985–3997.
Knudsen, E. I. (2002). Instructed learning in the auditory localization pathway of the barn owl. Nature, 417, 322–328. doi:10.1038/ 417322a
Konishi, M. (1986). Centrally synthesized maps of sensory space. Trends in Neurosciences, 9, 163–168. doi:10.1016/0166-2236(86)90053-6
Langendijk, E. H. A., & Bronkhorst, A. W. (2002). Contribution of spectral cues to human sound localization. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 112, 1583–1596. doi:10.1121/1.1501901
Lewald, J., Dörrscheidt, G. J., & Ehrenstein, W. H. (2000). Sound localization with eccentric head position. Behavioural Brain Research, 108, 105–125. doi:10.1016/S0166-4328(99)00141-2
Lewald, J., & Ehrenstein, W. H. (1998). Auditory-visual spatial integration: A new psychophysical approach using laser pointing to acoustic targets. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 104, 1586–1597. doi:10.1121/1.424371
Macpherson, E. A., & Middlebrooks, J. C. (2003). Verticalplane sound localization probed with ripple-spectrum noise. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 114, 430–445. doi:10.1121/1.1582174
Majdak, P., Balazs, P., & Laback, B. (2007). Multiple exponential sweep method for fast measurement of head-related transfer functions. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 55, 623–637.
Makous, J. C., & Middlebrooks, J. C. (1990). Two-dimensional sound localization by human listeners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 87, 2188–2200. doi:10.1121/1.399186
Martin, R. L., McAnally, K., & Senova, M. A. (2001). Free-field equivalent localization of virtual audio. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 49, 14–22.
Mason, R., Ford, N., Rumsey, F., & De Bruyn, B. (2001). Verbal and nonverbal elicitation techniques in the subjective assessment of spatial sound reproduction. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 49, 366–384.
May, J. G., & Badcock, D. R. (2002). Vision and virtual environment. In K. M. Stanney (Ed.), Handbook of virtual environments (pp. 29–64). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Middlebrooks, J. C. (1999). Virtual localization improved by scaling nonindividualized external-ear transfer functions in frequency. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 106, 1493–1510. doi:10.1121/1.427147
Møller, H., Sørensen, M. F., Hammershøi, D., & Jensen, C. B. (1995). Head-related transfer functions of human subjects. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 43, 300–321.
Montello, D. R., Richardson, A. E., Hegarty, M., & Provenza, M. (1999). A comparison of methods for estimating directions in egocentric space. Perception, 28, 981–1000. doi:10.1068/p2940
Morimoto, M., & Aokata, H. (1984). Localization cues in the upper hemisphere. Journal of the Acoustical Society of Japan, 5, 165–173.
Oldfield, S. R., & Parker, S. P. A. (1984). Acuity of sound localization: A topography of auditory space. I. Normal hearing conditions. Perception, 13, 581–600. doi:10.1068/p130581
Perrett, S., & Noble, W. (1997). The contribution of head motion cues to localization of low-pass noise. Perception & Psychophysics, 59, 1018–1026.
Perrott, D. R., Cisneros, J., McKinley, R. L., & D’Angelo, W. R. (1996). Aurally aided visual search under virtual and free-field listening conditions. Human Factors, 38, 702–715. doi:10.1518/ 001872096778827260
Pinek, B., & Brouchon, M. (1992). Head turning versus manual pointing to auditory targets in normal hearing subjects and in subjects with right parietal damage. Brain & Cognition, 18, 1–11. doi:10.1016/0278-2626(92)90107-W
Redon, C., & Hay, L. (2005). Role of visual context and oculomotor conditions in pointing accuracy. NeuroReport, 16, 2065–2067. doi:10.1097/00001756-200512190-00020
Seeber, B. (2002). A new method for localization studies. Acta Acustica United With Acustica, 88, 446–450.
Shelton, B. R., & Searle, C. L. (1980). The influence of vision on the absolute identification of sound-source position. Perception & Psychophysics, 28, 589–596.
Shinn-Cunningham, B. G., Durlach, N. I., & Held, R. M. (1998). Adapting to supernormal auditory localization cues. I. Bias and resolution. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 103, 3656–3666. doi:10.1121/1.423088
Wightman, F. L., & Kistler, D. J. (1989). Headphone simulation of free-field listening. II: Psychophysical validation. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 85, 868–878. doi:10.1121/1.397558
Wright, B. A., & Sabin, A. T. (2007). Perceptual learning: How much daily training is enough? Experimental Brain Research, 180, 727–736. doi:10.1007/s00221-007-0898-z
Zahorik, P., Bangayan, P., Sundareswaran, V., Wang, K., & Tam, C. (2006). Perceptual recalibration in human sound localization: Learning to remediate front-back reversals. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 120, 343–359. doi:10.1121/1.2208429
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This study was supported by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and bythe Austrian Science Fund (P18401-B15). Portions of this work were previously presented at the 124th Convention of the Audio Engineering Society in Amsterdam, 2008.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Majdak, P., Goupell, M.J. & Laback, B. 3-D localization of virtual sound sources: Effects of visual environment, pointing method, and training. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 72, 454–469 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.2.454
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.2.454