Discrimination of 2D wall textures by passive echolocation for different reflected-to-direct level difference configurations

PLoS One. 2021 May 27;16(5):e0251397. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251397. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

In this work, we study people's ability to discriminate between different 2D textures of walls by passive listening to a pre-recorded tongue click in an auralized echolocation scenario. In addition, the impact of artificially enhancing the early reflection magnitude by 6dB and of removing the direct component while equalizing the loudness was investigated. Listening test results for different textures, ranging from a flat wall to a staircase, were assessed using a 2 Alternative-Forced-Choice (2AFC) method, in which 14 sighted, untrained participants were indicating 2 equally perceived stimuli out of 3 presented stimuli. The average performance of the listening subjects to discriminate between different textures was found to be significantly higher for walls at 5m distance, without overlap between the reflected and direct sound, compared to the same walls at 0.8m distance. Enhancing the reflections as well as removing the direct sound were found to be beneficial to differentiate textures. This finding highlights the importance of forward masking in the discrimination process. The overall texture discriminability was found to be larger for the walls reflecting with a higher spectral coloration.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation / methods
  • Adult
  • Animals
  • Auditory Perception / physiology*
  • Discrimination, Psychological / physiology*
  • Echolocation / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Sound Localization / physiology*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The research has been performed under support of Faculty of Architecture of KU Leuven, the EPF France, EU project ACI (Erasmus+ program Strategic partnerships - Grant No 2017-1-PL01-KA202-038577) and EU project Asknow (Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliances - Grant No 2018-1-PL01-KA202-050820). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 690970. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.