Influence of monaural spectral cues on binaural localization

Abstract

Seven subjects located, monaurally and binaurally, narrow bands of noise originating in the horizontal plane. The stimuli were 1.0 kHz wide and centered at 4.0-14.0 kHz in steps of 0.5 kHz. The loudspeakers, 15 deg apart, were arranged in a semicircle (0-270-180 deg, azimuth). In the first part of the experiment all sounds emanated from the loudspeaker at 270 deg, but their apparent locations varied widely as a function of their center frequency. For each subject, the pattern of location judgments under the binaural listening condition corresponded to that recorded for the monaural condition. In the second part of the experiment the loudspeaker from which each of the same narrow bands of noise emanated was varied in irregular order. Again, monaural location judgments were governed by the frequency content of the noise bands. Binaural location judgments were strongly influenced by the sounds' frequency composition when the stimuli originated from 315-225 deg, notwithstanding the presence of interaural differences in time and intensity. For narrow bands of noise emanating off midline, monaural spectral cues significantly override binaural difference cues, and they also determine the resolution of front-back ambiguities.