The classic problem of stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility (SRC) is addressed. A cognitive model is proposed that views the stimulus and response sets in S-R ensembles as categories with dimensions that may or may not overlap. If they do overlap, the task may be compatible or incompatible, depending on the assigned S-R mapping. If they do not overlap, the task is noncompatible regardless of the assigned mapping. The overlapping dimensions may be relevant or not. The model provides a systematic account of SRC effects, a taxonomy of simple performance tasks that were hitherto thought to be unrelated, and suggestive parallels between these tasks and the experimental paradigms that have traditionally been used to study attentional, controlled, and automatic processes. In this article, we address the classic problem of stimulusresponse (S-R) compatibility (SRC). A model is proposed that attempts to provide a systematic account of performance in highly compatible, incompatible, and noncompatible tasks. At the core of our model is the idea that when a particular S-R ensemble produces either high or low compatibility effects, it is because the stimulus and response sets in the ensemble have properties in common, and elements in the stimulus set automatically activate corresponding elements in the response set. Noncompatible tasks are those in which the stimulus and response sets have nothing in common. If the activated response is the required one, it will be executed rapidly and correctly; if it is not, then it will be relatively slow and error prone. Whether a particular S-R ensemble will produce compatibility effects is often quite easy to determine because of the relationship between the stimulus and response sets. In the part of the model that treats the representational aspects of the problem, we postulate that this relationship is based on the commonality, simi

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Dimensional overlap: cognitive basis for stimulus-response compatibility--a model and taxonomy.

"Dimensional overlap: Cognitive basis for stimulus-response compatibility--A model and taxonomy": Correction to Kornblum et al

In many everyday situations, our senses are bombarded by many different unisensory signals at any given time. To gain the most veridical, and least variable, estimate of environmental stimuli/properties, we need to combine the individual noisy unisensory perceptual estimates that refer to the same object, while keeping those estimates belonging to different objects or events separate. How, though, does the brain “know” which stimuli to combine? Traditionally, researchers interested in the crossmodal binding problem have focused on the roles that spatial and temporal factors play in modulating multisensory integration. However, crossmodal correspondences between various unisensory features (such as between auditory pitch and visual size) may provide yet another important means of constraining the crossmodal binding problem. A large body of research now shows that people exhibit consistent crossmodal correspondences between many stimulus features in different sensory modalities. For example, people consistently match high-pitched sounds with small, bright objects that are located high up in space. The literature reviewed here supports the view that crossmodal correspondences need to be considered alongside semantic and spatiotemporal congruency, among the key constraints that help our brains solve the crossmodal binding problem.

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Crossmodal correspondences: A tutorial review

Technology and applications for the rendering of virtual acoustic spaces are reviewed. Chapter 1 deals with acoustics and psychoacoustics. Chapters 2 and 3 cover cues to spatial hearing and review psychoacoustic literature. Chapter 4 covers signal processing and systems overviews of 3-D sound systems. Chapter 5 covers applications to computer workstations, communication systems, aeronautics and space, and sonic arts. Chapter 6 lists resources. This TM is a reprint of the 1994 book from Academic Press.

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3-D sound for virtual reality and multimedia

Listeners reported the apparent spatial positions of wideband noise bursts that were presented either by loudspeakers in free field or by headphones. The headphone stimuli were digitally processed with the aim of duplicating, at a listener’s eardrums, the waveforms that were produced by the free‐field stimuli. The processing algorithms were based on each subject’s free‐field‐to‐eardrum transfer functions that had been measured at 144 free‐field source locations. The headphone stimuli were localized by eight subjects in virtually the same positions as the corresponding free‐field stimuli. However, with headphone stimuli, there were more front–back confusions, and source elevation seemed slightly less well defined. One subject’s difficulty with elevation judgments, which was observed both with free‐field and with headphone stimuli, was traced to distorted features of the free‐field‐to‐eardrum transfer function.

Headphone simulation of free-field listening. II: Psychophysical validation

The ability of listeners to locate sound in the vertical plane was investigated. The results showed that for auditory stimuli to be located accurately (1) the stimulus must be complex, (2) it must include frequencies above 7000 cps, and, (3) the pinna must be present.

Factors That Influence the Localization of Sound in the Vertical Plane

Listeners, when requested to judge the location of tone bursts on the vertical plane, tended to place the stimuli on a vertical scale in accordance with their respective pitch. Higher‐pitched sounds were perceived as originating above lower‐pitched sounds. This phenomenon was also observed in congenitally blind persons and in young children who presumably were unaware of the use of the words high and low in describing differently pitched sounds. In additional tests, visual cues were found to influence the range of the scale within which listeners perceived the sound sources and they could even bias the location judgments of high‐pitched tone bursts despite contrary binaural cues. But the main implication of the data is that tonal stimuli have intrinsic spatial characteristics, which result in the perception of frequencies with shorter periods as being higher in space than those with longer periods.

Suzanne K. Roffler

Papers

Factors That Influence the Localization of Sound in the Vertical Plane

Localization of tonal stimuli in the vertical plane.