RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Decision making in auditory externalization perception: model predictions for static conditions
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.04.30.068817
DO 10.1101/2020.04.30.068817
A1 Baumgartner, Robert
A1 Majdak, Piotr
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/09/02/2020.04.30.068817.abstract
AB Under natural conditions, listeners perceptually attribute sounds to external objects in their environment. This core function of perceptual inference is often distorted when sounds are produced via hearing devices such as headphones or hearing aids, resulting in sources being perceived unrealistically close or even inside the head. Psychoacoustic studies suggest a mixed role of various monaural and interaural cues contributing to the externalization process. We developed a model framework for perceptual externalization able to probe the contribution of cue-specific expectation errors and to contrast dynamic versus static strategies for combining those errors within static listening environments. Effects of reverberation and visual information were not considered. The model was applied to various acoustic distortions as tested under various spatially static conditions in five previous experiments. Most accurate predictions were obtained for the combination of monaural and interaural spectral cues with a fixed relative weighting (approximately 60% of monaural and 40% of interaural). That model version was able to reproduce the externalization rating of the five experiments with an average error of 12% (relative to the full rating scale). Further, our results suggest that auditory externalization in spatially static listening situations underlie a fixed weighting of monaural and interaural spectral cues, rather than a dynamic selection of those auditory cues.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.