Each person’s directional hearing is calibrated to their own ear shape

Evidence

The effect is also person specific, as we all have differently shaped ears and learn these cues as we grow up. Thus we get confused for a while when we change our acoustic head shape radically, for example by cutting very long hair short. We also find that if we hear sound recorded through other people’s ears, we may have a different ability to localize the sound, because the interference patterns are not the same as those for our ears. In fact, sometimes this localization capability is worse than when using our own ears, and sometimes it is better. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 732

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Personal acoustic calibrations echo how cultural and physical contexts shape perception, paralleling themes in my listening essays.
• XREF: connects to: Individual HRTF measurements give the most accurate external ear emulation — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1608; Each person’s directional hearing cues are learned and specific to their own ears; The auditory system continuously adapts to each person’s changing ear shape (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Each person’s directional hearing cues are learned and specific to their own ears #corroborates (0.98)
• Sound localization from pinna cues is learned and specific to each person’s ear shape. #corroborates (0.98)
• Spatial hearing is calibrated through learning to each listener’s head and pinna geometry #corroborates (0.95) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1381
• The auditory system continuously adapts to each person’s changing ear shape #expands (0.72)