Re: front to rear reversals

[Rebecca Mercuri <mercuri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

No, Tim, there's actually two different effects -- front to rear reversals
and in-head interpretation. Listening through headphones tends to create
the in-head interpretation because the headphones cut off the interaction
of the pinnae (those convolutions of the outer ear that actually provide
directional information, some people's pinnae turn out to be better
for directional hearing than others). The front to rear reversals occur
in free space listening (from actual as well as reconstructed sources).
The reasons for both effects are well documented. Begault's work at
NASA has a lot of data on front-rear reversal effects.

Hope this helps sort out the confusion,
Rebecca Mercuri.