title: Relative influence of interaural time and intensity differences on lateralization is modulated by attention to one or the other cue: 500-Hz sine tones.
abstract: When interaural time differences and interaural intensity differences are set into opposition, the measured trading ratio depends on which cue is adjusted by the listener. In an earlier article [Lang, A.-G., and Buchner, A., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 124, 3120-3131 (2008)], four experiments showed that the perceived localization of a broad band sound for which differences in one cue were compensated by differences in the other cue such that the sound seemed to originate from a central position shifted back toward the location from which the sound appeared to originate before the adjustment. It was argued that attention shifted toward the effect of the to-be-adjusted cue during the compensation task, leading to an increased weighting of the to-be-adjusted cue. The use of broadband stimuli raises the question whether the "shift-back effect" was caused by attentional shifts to the effect of the to-be-adjusted binaural cue or by attention shifts to the particular frequency range which is most important for localizations based on the to-be-adjusted cue. Two experiments are reported in which sine tones of 500 Hz were used instead of broadband sounds. The shift-back effect could still be observed, supporting our original hypothesis. A control experiment showed that participants had accurate representations of the critical central position.
authors.affiliation: Institut fur Experimentelle Psychologie, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat, 40225 Dusseldorf, Germany. albert.lang@uni-duesseldorf.de
authors.forename: Albert-Georg
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buchner
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013017:Sound Localization / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult