Perturbation analysis of acoustic cues for sound source identification
Robert A. Lutfi · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2003
Perturbation analysis has enjoyed recent success in vision as a means of revealing decision processes underlying object identification [J. Vision 2, 1–131 (2002)]. Here it is applied to auditory identification of elementary sound sources and their attributes. The analysis proceeds in two stages: First, listener decision strategy is determined from regression weights relating listener judgments to lawful perturbations in acoustic parameters from theoretical acoustics. Second, limits in processing are identified by comparing the obtained weights to those of a hypothetical observer who bases decisions on acoustic information intrinsic to the source attribute(s) being judged. The approach represents a significant advance over past methods that infer decision strategy from performance accuracy or from the effect of placing acoustic cues in unlawful opposition. Initial studies are reviewed revealing a complex pattern of results in which decision strategy is based on intrinsic acoustic information in some conditions but not in others, and in which there are sometimes individual differences in decision strategy that yield the same level of identification performance. [Work supported by NIDCD.]