Specific outcomes from the project

Application and evaluation

Evaluation of modified measurement model with musical stimuli

Summary

The modifications that were made to the IACC-based binaural hearing model were derived using highly controlled artificial stimuli. The applicability of these results to more externally valid musical stimuli was tested by evaluating the resulting measurement model. This showed that the model accurately predicted the perceived width of relatively simple single musical stimuli.

Detail

The basic IACC calculation has been developed into a more complete binaural hearing model that predicts the perceived auditory source width on a perceptually relevant scale. This has involved the addition of a number of additional components that have been derived using controlled subjective experimentation. This has required the use of highly controlled artificial test signals in order to limit confounding variables affecting the results. It is therefore necessary to examine how well the components derived using artificial signals can predict the attributes of more externally relevant musical signals.

An experiment was conducted where subjects judged the width of a number of musical signals convolved with a number of different impulse responses of acoustical environments on an angular scale. Objective measurements were also made of the stimuli, and these were compared with the subjective results. A certain amount of interpretation was required to integrate the measured results across frequency, but it was found that the objective results provided a good prediction of the subjective results in the majority of cases.

Reference

[Mason et al 2004d]

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