Don McBurney is having some email trouble and asked me to forward the
following:
According to David Green's An Introduction to Hearing, citing Mills,
1972,
the smallest discriminable difference between two sound sources can be
as
little as 1 degree, depending on frequency and direction (about 500 Hz,
straight ahead). (This is not the same as error of localization, on
which
I don't have a handy source.) There are two main cues, time of arrival
and
intensity differences at the two ears. We are able to discriminate an
incredible 10 microsecond (not milliseconds ) difference in time of
arrival under the best conditions.
don
Donald McBurney
University of Pittsburgh
--On Thursday, June 07, 2001, 8:57 AM -0400 Tom Allaway
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> According to Coren, Ward, and Enns (Sensation and Perception, fifth
> edition) citing Gulick, 1971, we have an auditory localization error of
> from 10 to about 18 degrees, depending on frequency. To relate this to
> your question, there would be an abolute upper limit of 36 sources (360
> degrees divided by 10) we could discriminate. In practice, of course,
> the actual number would probably be much less, because sources would
> mask each other, and localization accuracy is probably not equally good
> at all azimuths.
>
