Acoustics Group, Department of Information Technology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2013 Jul;134(1):474-80. doi: 10.1121/1.4807822.
Distance to a sound source can be accurately estimated solely from auditory information. With a sound source such as a train that is passing by at a relatively large distance, the most important auditory information for the listener for estimating its distance consists of the intensity of the sound, spectral changes in the sound caused by air absorption, and the motion-induced rate of change of intensity. However, these cues are relative because prior information/experience of the sound source-its source power, its spectrum and the typical speed at which it moves-is required for such distance estimates. This paper describes two listening experiments that allow investigation of further prior contextual information taken into account by listeners-viz., whether they are indoors or outdoors. Asked to estimate the distance to the track of a railway, it is shown that listeners assessing sounds heard inside the dwelling based their distance estimates on the expected train passby sound level outdoors rather than on the passby sound level actually experienced indoors. This form of perceptual constancy may have consequences for the assessment of annoyance caused by railway noise.
仅通过听觉信息就能准确估计声源的距离。对于像火车这样从远处经过的声源，听者用来估计其距离的最重要的听觉信息包括声音的强度、空气吸收引起的声音频谱变化以及运动引起的强度变化率。然而，这些线索是相对的，因为需要有关声源的先验信息/经验——其源功率、频谱以及其移动的典型速度——才能进行这种距离估计。本文描述了两项听力实验，这些实验允许研究听者所考虑的其他先验语境信息，即他们是在室内还是室外。当被要求估计铁轨的距离时，结果表明，根据预期的室外火车经过时的声音水平而不是实际室内的经过声音水平，评估室内住所听到的声音的听者对距离进行了估计。这种形式的感知恒常性可能会对铁路噪声引起的烦恼评估产生影响。
