Interaural correlation and the discrimination of one from two delayed sources
Irwin W. Pollack · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1991
In 1948, J. C. R. Licklider provided a powerful methodology for exploring the binaural system in terms of the cross correlations of signals presented to the two ears. The Licklider procedure is here extended to the discrimination between: (1) a binaural source with single ongoing interaural delay and (2) a combination of two binaural sources, each with its own delay, with the mean delay equal to the single delay. Accuracy of discrimination suffers at longer mean interaural delays. Accuracy of performance varies with the difference between the two delays of the combination. The direction of change is determined by the contrast in interaural correlation. The results are consistent with a binaural system where interaural correlation is evaluated at stations specific to the component interaural delay(s); where the strength of interaction between the component correlations decreases with the difference in the component interaural delays; and where the associated internal noise level increases with longer interaural delays (Jeffress). Licklider's methods and his correlational theory of binaural localization continue to provide a rich source of hypotheses and procedures for the analysis of binaural listening.