Discrimination of dynamic interaural intensity differences. 1984

D W Grantham

An experiment was conducted to measure observers' ability to detect time-varying interaural intensity differences (IIDs). In a two-interval forced-choice task, observers discriminated a binaural amplitude modulated (AM) noise in which the modulating sinusoid was interaurally in-phase from the same AM noise in which the modulator was interaurally phase-reversed. The latter stimulus produces a sinusoidally varying IID whose rate and peak IID depend on the frequency (fm) and depth (m) of modulation. The carrier was a narrow-band noise, interaurally uncorrelated, centered at 500, 1000, or 4000 Hz. Presentation level was 75 dB SPL; duration was 1.0 s. For a given fm, m was varied in an adaptive procedure to estimate the depth required for 71% discriminability (mthr). Three of the four observers displayed "low-pass" modulation functions: at 500 Hz, as fm increased from 0-50 Hz, mthr increased from 0.08 (IID = 1.3 dB) to 0.50 (peak IID = 9.5 dB). At 1000 and 4000 Hz observers were more sensitive to IID and the functions (mthr vs fm) were flatter than at 500 Hz. Comparison of these data to previously published data indicates that the binaural system can follow fluctuations in IID more efficiently than it can follow fluctuations in interaural time difference, although there are large individual differences in subjects' capacity to process these two types of binaural cues.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008144 Loudness Perception The perceived attribute of a sound which corresponds to the physical attribute of intensity. Loudness Perceptions,Perception, Loudness,Perceptions, Loudness
D010898 Pitch Perception A dimension of auditory sensation varying with cycles per second of the sound stimulus. Perception, Pitch,Perceptions, Pitch,Pitch Perceptions
D011571 Psychoacoustics The science pertaining to the interrelationship of psychologic phenomena and the individual's response to the physical properties of sound. Psychoacoustic
D003463 Cues Signals for an action; that specific portion of a perceptual field or pattern of stimuli to which a subject has learned to respond. Cue
D004192 Discrimination, Psychological Differential response to different stimuli. Discrimination, Psychology,Psychological Discrimination
D004292 Dominance, Cerebral Dominance of one cerebral hemisphere over the other in cerebral functions. Cerebral Dominance,Hemispheric Specialization,Dominances, Cerebral,Specialization, Hemispheric
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001309 Auditory Threshold The audibility limit of discriminating sound intensity and pitch. Auditory Thresholds,Threshold, Auditory,Thresholds, Auditory

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