Perceptual plasticity in spatial auditory displays

ABSTRACT

Often, virtual acoustic environments present cues that are inconsistent with an individual's normal experiences. Through training, however, an individual can at least partially adapt to such inconsistent cues through either short- [Kassem 1998; Shinn-Cunningham 2000; Shinn-Cunningham et al. 1998a, 1998b; Zahorik 2001] or long- [Hofman et al. 1998] term exposure. The type and degree of inconsistency as well as the length of training determine the final accuracy and consistency with which the subject can localize sounds [Shinn-Cunningham 2000]. The current experiments of short-term adaptation measure how localization bias (mean error) and resolution (precision) change when subjects are exposed to auditory cue rearrangements simpler than those previously investigated. These results, combined with those of earlier experiments, suggest that there is plasticity at many different levels of the spatial auditory processing pathway with different time scales governing the plasticity at different levels of the system. This view of spatial auditory plasticity has important implications for the design of spatial auditory displays.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

General Terms:
Experimentation, Human Factors, Performance

Keywords:
Auditory display, spatial hearing, virtual auditory space