ASA 129th Meeting - Washington, DC - 1995 May 30 .. Jun 06

2pPP54. The relationship between tone frequency and perceived elevation under headphone listening conditions.

Alan D. Musicant

Dept. of Psychol., Middle Tennessee St. Univ., Box X063, Murfreesboro, TN 37132

The relationship between pure tone frequency and perceived in head elevation was investigated. Stimuli were pure tones ranging from 1000 to 1200 Hz in 1000 Hz steps. Insert earphones were utilized for presentation. Subjects were instructed to indicate, on two separate diagrams, the image location of the stimulus after presentation of a brief tone. Dimensions were left--right, front--back and elevation. All stimuli were presented diotically, that is with equal intensity to the two ears. Tones were presented at approximately 70 phons with a variation of (plus or minus)3 dB. Perceived in head location was found to vary systematically in the elevation dimension. Tones with lower frequencies were perceived as lower in elevation than tones of higher frequency up to about 9 kHz. Stimuli with frequencies of 10 kHz and higher were perceived as lower in elevation relative to the perceived elevation of the 8- and 9-kHz stimuli. Results of this experiment were compared to results from free field experiments and found to be in general agreement with those reported by Butler [Conference on Binaural and Spatial Hearing, 1993]. Results of this experiment are compared with results obtained in the more typical lateralization paradigms.