Identification and localization of sound sources in the median sagittal plane

The ability of human listeners to identify broadband noises differing in spectral structure was studied for multiple sound-source locations in the median sagittal plane. The purpose of the study was to understand how sound identification is affected by spectral variations caused by directionally dependent head-related transfer functions. It was found that listeners could accurately identify noises with different spectral peaks and valleys when the source location was fixed. Listeners could also identify noises when the source location was roved in the median sagittal plane when the relevant spectral features were at low frequency. Listeners failed to identify noises with roved location when the spectral structure was at high frequency, presumably because the spectral structure was confused with the spectral variations caused by different locations. Parallel experiments on sound localization showed that listeners can localize noises that they cannot identify. The combination of identification and localization experiments leads to the conclusion that listeners cannot compensate for directionally dependent filtering by their own heads when they try to identify sounds.