Smith Jan R, Lombard Wesley R, Shaba Moses N
Ergonomics Technologies, PO Box 6264, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa.
Work. 2012;41 Suppl 1:1994-2000. doi: 10.3233/WOR-2012-0421-1994.
Accurate sound source localization has advantages for the performance of work by humans. The ability to accurately localize sound sources contributes to perception, decision making and task performance. Two studies were conducted to investigate the prevalence of accurate sound source localization and the enhancement that spatially separated sound source locations can have on speech perception. The first study was conducted to characterize the ability to detect the location of horizontal plane sound sources. A sample of 117 participants with the hearing capacity within the normal limits participated in the study. The results indicated that sound sources located towards the front of the participant were identified more frequently than those sound sources located towards the rear positions. Based on the results found in the first study, a second study was conducted to assess performance within a listening task. Three different spatial configurations were used to assess if similar trends in performance translated to sound sources through headphones. Fifteen research participants performed a Coordinated Response Measure (CRM) task requiring the identification of a speech phrase and its associated information for a diotic configuration and two different spatial sound source configurations. Performance measured for the diotic configuration was significantly (p(0.05) less than for the two spatial configurations. The current studies indicate distinct advantages of utilizing localized sound sources to present auditory signal and speech to listeners.
准确的声源定位对人类的工作表现具有优势。准确进行声源定位的能力有助于感知、决策和任务执行。开展了两项研究，以调查准确声源定位的普遍性，以及空间上分离的声源位置对语音感知的增强作用。第一项研究旨在描述检测水平面声源位置的能力。117名听力正常的参与者参与了该研究。结果表明，位于参与者前方的声源比位于后方位置的声源被识别的频率更高。基于第一项研究的结果，开展了第二项研究以评估听力任务中的表现。使用三种不同的空间配置来评估在通过耳机呈现声源时是否会出现类似的表现趋势。15名研究参与者执行了一项协调反应测量（CRM）任务，该任务要求识别双耳配置和两种不同空间声源配置下的一个语音短语及其相关信息。双耳配置下测量的表现显著（p<0.05）低于两种空间配置下的表现。当前的研究表明，利用定位声源向听众呈现听觉信号和语音具有明显优势。
