THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO DICHOTIC NOISE ON THE DISCRIMINATION OF DICHOTIC TIME DIFFERENCES

Abstract

Subjects were exposed, under three conditions of motility, to a constantly changing auditory field produced by two separate noise-generating systems, each feeding the sound into one ear. After two hours of continuous exposure, eleven out of twelve ambulatory subjects showed increased variability in an auditory localization task, the discrimination of dichotic time differences. Performance after two hours under the same conditions of exposure deteriorated for only five out of twelve subjects when body movements were restricted. When the subjects were wheeled in a wheelchair, sitting quietly except for frequent head rotations, nine out of twelve subjects showed increased variability. That is, self-produced motion of at least the head, while listening to dichotic noise which masked background sounds, was necessary to disrupt accurate auditory localization.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1961
Accession Number
AD0256800

Entities

People

  • Donald W. Pfaff
  • Sanford J. Freedman

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Central Nervous System
  • Data Science
  • Deprivation
  • Direction Finding
  • Feedback
  • Frequency
  • Generators
  • Human Behavior
  • Intensity
  • Nervous System
  • Perception
  • Psychology
  • Rotation
  • Square Waves
  • Standards
  • Waveforms

Readers

  • Acoustics.
  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience