Perception of Sound-Obstructing Surfaces Using Body-Scaled Judgments

A sound may be partially occluded by a surface, causing changes to its acoustic structure. The resultant acoustic shadow may be used to support judgments of the obstructing surface's position relative to the source and listener. In these experiments, blindfolded participants were asked to listen to sound projected through a doorway-like frame and judge whether passage was afforded for various aperture sizes (e.g., Warren & Wang, 1987). Judgments were found to be relatively accurate, suggesting the utility of acoustic shadows to inform about the obstructing surfaces. The relative intensities between aperture sizes were found to partially support this ability.