Abstract:
Individually measured head-related-transfer functions were used to simulate different acoustic environments in order to see how listener experience influences auditory distance perception. Three environments were simulated: an anechoic space, a classroom with the listener in the room center, and the same classroom with the listener in the room corner. Each subject completed two series of trials consisting of 360 trials in each environment. Each series consisted of six experimental sessions, with only one session performed per day. In the fixed-room series, one environment was tested in each session (ordered randomly). In the mixed-room series, trials from the three environments were intermingled within each session. Listeners were divided into two groups: Group A performed the fixed-room series followed by the mixed-room series, while Group B did the reverse. Sources were simulated from ahead and to the right of the listener at distances ranging from 0.15 to 1.7 m. Preliminary analysis indicates that performance improves with experience in the fixed-room but not the mixed-room trials. These results suggest that listeners learn to calibrate auditory distance percepts based on recent experience with the reverberation and echoes in a particular environment. [Work supported by AFOSR and the Sloan Foundation.]