Auditory localization of steady state and impulse sounds in an urban relevant, reverberant environment

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2014-07-08

Department

Towson University. Department of Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology and Deaf Studies

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Rights

Copyright protected, all rights reserved.
There are no restrictions on access to this document. An internet release form signed by the author to display this document online is on file with Towson University Special Collections and Archives.

Subjects

Abstract

Auditory localization has been extensively studied in a free field environment but it is less understood in a complex, reverberant environment. Auditory localization abilities were assessed for 24 normal hearing participants aged 18 to 30 years. All participants took part in a source identification task that was conducted using a lap top computer and insert earphones. Participants were asked to identify which of the four sound source locations a stimulus was presented. This task was completed using two different noise stimuli (impulse, steady state) and five different manikin positions. Results revealed that the sound source location and manikin position significantly impacted localization performance in a reverberant environment. For example, manikin positions and sound source locations located next to two reverberant sources resulted in a decline in localization abilities. Although the type of stimulus did not affect performance overall, stimulus type did impact localization performance at different manikin position and sound source location combinations. This study provides additional information regarding auditory localization in a complex, reverberant environment.