Re: front to rear reversals (John Middlebrooks )


Subject: Re: front to rear reversals
From:    John Middlebrooks  <jmidd(at)KHRI1.KHRI.MED.UMICH.EDU>
Date:    Wed, 19 Jan 2000 09:21:00 -0500

We have found that the characteristics of front/back confusions in virtual listening are systematically related to the HRTFs of the listener and of the HRTFs through which he or she listens. The individual differences in HRTFs tend to correlate with the sizes of listeners' heads and external ears, so it is convenient to refer to "large" and "small" listeners. When small listeners use HRTFs from larger subjects, they tend to localize low frontal targets to the rear and (somewhat less consistently) high rear targets to the front. When large listeners use HRTFS from smaller listeners, front/back confusions are less common. The most common error is that low targets are localized upward. For instance, as a large listener myself, when I listen through generic HRTFs I have no trouble hearing frontal targets as in the front, but I never hear good realizations of low targets . The work on individual differences in transfer functions is in JASA 106:1480-1492 (1999), and the corresponding psychophysical work is in JASA 106:1493-1510 (1999). John C. Middlebrooks University of Michigan Date sent: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 11:36:10 +0900 Send reply to: William L Martens <wlm(at)U-AIZU.AC.JP> From: William L Martens <wlm(at)U-AIZU.AC.JP> Subject: Re: front to rear reversals To: AUDITORY(at)LISTS.MCGILL.CA Pierre Divenyi wrote: > I think I am not the only one to disagree with your phenomenological > observations [about front to rear reversals]. Another important point to note is the existence of individual differences in response bias. Typically, about 70% of listeners tend to report that frontal sources arrive from the rear, while the other 30% tend to report that rear sources arrive from the front. See for example, Begault & Wenzel (1991) Headphone localization of speech stimuli (Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 35th Annual Meeting, 82-86). -- William L. Martens, Ph.D. Associate Professor Multimedia Systems Lab URL: http://www.u-aizu.ac.jp/~wlm University of Aizu TEL: [+81](242)37-2791 Aizu-Wakamatsu 965-8580, Japan FAX: [+81](242)37-2731 _________________________________ Dr. John C. Middlebrooks Kresge Hearing Research Institute University of Michigan 1301 E. Ann St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0506 voice: 734-763-7965 FAX: 734-764-0014 jmidd(at)umich.edu


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