Coherence influences sound-field localization dominance in a precedence paradigm

Abstract

The ability to localize sound sources in reverberant environments is dependent upon first-arriving information, an outcome commonly termed “the precedence effect.” For example, a combination of a leading (direct) sound followed by a lagging (reflected) sound is localized in the direction of the leading sound. We measured how the compactness/diffuseness (i.e., the interaural coherence) of leading and lagging sounds, respectively, influences performance. The compactness/diffuseness of leading or lagging sounds was varied by either presenting a sound from a single loudspeaker or by presenting mutually uncorrelated versions of similar sounds from nine adjacent loudspeakers. The listener pointed to the perceived location of leading and lagging sources of sounds which were 10-ms long, low-pass filtered white noises or 2-second long tokens of speech. The sounds were presented either from speakers located directly in front of the listener or from speakers located 45° to the right or left. Leading compact/coherent...