Localization of High-Frequency Tones

Abstract

In an earlier study, [Sandel, Teas, Fedderson, and Jeffress, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 27, 842 (1955)] the writers attempted to correlate interaural intensity and time differences with the subject's localization response. The present paper is an extension of that work. It includes physical measurements of interaural time differences and intensity differences, and attempts to relate these differences to the localization response at a variety of frequencies. The stimuli to be localized were provided through earphones, and the subject was required to match the position (in his head) of a noise and a tone. The noise to one ear was delayed, and the tone presented with no time or phase difference. The subject adjusted the interaural level of the tone until it and the noise appeared to be in the same place. The two were presented alternately by means of a gate having a 150-msec rise and decay time. Data from the localization judgments were then compared with the findings from the acoustical measurements of time and intensity. Several systematic trends were found and compared with results of the previous study.