Relative influence of interaural time and intensity differences on lateralization is modulated by attention to one or the other cue: 500-Hz sine tones.

When interaural time differences and interaural intensity differences are set into opposition, the measured trading ratio depends on which cue is adjusted by the listener. In an earlier article [Lang, A.-G., and Buchner, A., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 124, 3120-3131 (2008)], four experiments showed that the perceived localization of a broad band sound for which differences in one cue were compensated by differences in the other cue such that the sound seemed to originate from a central position shifted back toward the location from which the sound appeared to originate before the adjustment. It was argued that attention shifted toward the effect of the to-be-adjusted cue during the compensation task, leading to an increased weighting of the to-be-adjusted cue. The use of broadband stimuli raises the question whether the "shift-back effect" was caused by attentional shifts to the effect of the to-be-adjusted binaural cue or by attention shifts to the particular frequency range which is most important for localizations based on the to-be-adjusted cue. Two experiments are reported in which sine tones of 500 Hz were used instead of broadband sounds. The shift-back effect could still be observed, supporting our original hypothesis. A control experiment showed that participants had accurate representations of the critical central position.