Reverberation and the Franssen effect

Abstract

The Franssen effect, in which the location of a sudden-onset (transient) tone can occlude the location of a contralateral slow-onset (steady-state) tone, has been previously shown to occur only in a reverberant space. The nature of the reverberation required—how much and what kind—for the effect to occur has yet to be determined. To explore the role of reverberation in the Franssen effect, listeners were asked to identify the location(s) of transient/steady-state pure tones with frequencies ranging from 250–4000 Hz in a variety of real and virtual contexts: (a) limited (single reflective panel) reverberant enclosure; (b) discrete reflections in an anechoic room; (c) mannequin recordings of a reverberant enclosure presented over headphones; (d) impulse-response filtered signals presented over headphones; and (e) simulated 3-D reverberation via consumer-grade software. Results indicate that the Franssen effect can be a simple, effective means to judge the verisimilitude of a virtual environment. [Work supported by NIDCD.]