Contribution
Which acoustic cues are relevant for the auditory perception of the distance of a vehicle in a street-crossing scenario?
* Presenting author
Abstract:
When a car approaches a pedestrian standing at the curb, various auditory distance cues are available: a) acoustic intensity, b) azimuthal vehicle position, c) auditory source width, and d) sound spectrum (e.g. due to interference between direct and reflected sound). To investigate which cues are most relevant for auditory distance judgments, we manipulated cue availability in a two-interval distance discrimination experiment presenting static acoustic simulations of vehicles in TASCAR. The availability of cues a-d were manipulated in 8 experimental conditions. For instance, in one condition the simulated spatial position was independent of the simulated distance, while presenting the same variation of intensity with simulated distance as in the base condition where all cues were available. Distance discrimination was significantly better when the intensity cue was available. In these conditions, removing the variation in simulated spatial position or in source width resulted in a moderate performance decrement. Where the intensity cue was unavailable, performance was significantly better at a standard distance of 11 m compared to 56 m, modulated by the availability of reflected sound and distance-dependence of source width.Results indicate that the intensity cue is most important, but the other cues also contribute to auditory vehicle distance discrimination.