Effects of natural and artificial spatialization cues on segregation
Résumé
A series of experiments was performed to better understanding factors that determine the clarity or ‘‘transparency’’ of sound scenes, particularly those created by artificial means. Using a paradigm proposed by C. J. Darwin and R. W. Hukin [J. Exp. Psychol. 25, 617–629], subjects were presented with a target sentence containing one word (chosen among two) that they had to report. Simultaneously they were presented with a distractor sentence containing a second word, temporally aligned with the first. In the absence of segregation cues, subjects scored 50% correct on average. A higher score indicated that simultaneous segregation and sequential grouping mechanisms were both effective. Stimuli were presented by headphones using individual or dummy‐head head‐related transfer functions (HRTFs), and various combinations of source positions, room effects, and restitution techniques. [Work supported by the Cognitique Programme of the French Ministry of Research and Technology.]