Auditory velocity discrimination in the horizontal plane at very high velocities

作者：Frissen Ilja^*; Feron Francois Xavier; Guastavino Catherine

来源：Hearing Research, 2014, 316: 94-101.

DOI：10.1016/j.heares.2014.07.014

We determined velocity discrimination thresholds and Weber fractions for sounds revolving around the listener at very high velocities. Sounds used were a broadband white noise and two harmonic sounds with fundamental frequencies of 330 Hz and 1760 Hz. Experiment 1 used velocities ranging between 288 degrees/s and 720 degrees/s in an acoustically treated room and Experiment 2 used velocities between 288 degrees/s and 576 degrees/s in a highly reverberant hall. A third experiment addressed potential confounds in the first two experiments. The results show that people can reliably discriminate velocity at very high velocities and that both thresholds and Weber fractions decrease as velocity increases. These results violate Weber's law but are consistent with the empirical trend observed in the literature. While thresholds for the noise and 330 Hz harmonic stimulus were similar, those for the 1760 Hz harmonic stimulus were substantially higher. There were no reliable differences in velocity discrimination between the two acoustical environments, suggesting that auditory motion perception at high velocities is robust against the effects of reverberation.

• 出版日期2014-10
• 单位McGill