Level differences alone are too small to drive minimum audible angle discrimination

Evidence

However, at large angular differences it was clearly observed that the level cue becomes prominent, whereas the level cue decreased with decreasing incidence angle. At average MAAs (< 35° for HI) level-cue magnitudes (< approximately 1 dB) were found to be smaller than the level just-noticeable-differences for HI test subjects reported to be 1–2 dB (Moore 2003 ). This indicates that most subjects likely used the frequency-shaping cue rather than the level cue. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3129

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to the broader psychoacoustics literature on spectral (pinna) vs. level cues for localization, e.g. Blauert’s spatial hearing work.

Related

• Level differences at typical MAAs fall below the 1-2 dB just-noticeable difference (similarity 0.92)
• Hearing-impaired listeners rely on spectral not level cues at threshold (similarity 0.91)
• Level differences at typical MAAs stay below just-noticeable-differences for hearing-impaired listeners (similarity 0.90)
• Pinna frequency-shaping cues, not level cues, drive sound localization at typical angular thresholds (similarity 0.89)
• Hearing-impaired level just-noticeable-differences are about 1 to 2 dB (similarity 0.84)
• Hearing-impaired subjects localized via pinna frequency shaping, not level differences (similarity 0.84)
• Minimum Audible Angle measures the smallest discriminable angular change (similarity 0.83)
• Cue type but not reference angle affected hearing-impaired localization acuity (similarity 0.81)
• Increasing intensity improves frequency discrimination, much more at low frequencies (similarity 0.81)
• Hearing loss impairs pinna-cue discrimination for vertical sound localization (similarity 0.80)
• Interaural level differences only emerge at frequencies above roughly 400 Hz. (similarity 0.80)
• A low-frequency spectral notch in pinna cues shifts upward with elevation angle (similarity 0.80)
• Hearing becomes less sensitive to frequency variations as level increases (similarity 0.80)
• Spectrally shaped targets can equalize audibility across listeners with differing audiograms. (similarity 0.80)
• Interaural level differences grow with frequency and reach up to 20 dB. (similarity 0.79)