Abstract
In vision, a change in target position can cause an otherwise stationary target to perceptually “pop out,” thereby increasing its detectability. Previous work in this lab and others has shown that there is no corollary effect for auditory detection. The explanation most often given for this “null result” is that, while vision is encoded spatiotopically, audition is encoded tonotopically, and therefore changes in sound source position should not be expected to impact auditory detection in the way that target movement affects visual detection. This argument assumes that detection is largely a peripheral task. However, Green, Watson, and others have shown that auditory detection is affected by listener uncertainty about the frequency of presented target tones—this “external noise,” in terms of frequency, suggests that detection involves processing at higher levels beyond the periphery (e.g., attention). It therefore stands to reason that auditory target stimuli may be less detectable when sound source location is randomized—a spatial manifestation of external noise. We will present data testing this hypothesis.
Published Version
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