Auditory distance perception by blind and sighted participants for both within- and beyond-reach sources

Lombera, E. N. Laboratorio de Acústica y Percepción Sonora (LAPSo), Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, CONICET, R. S. Peña 352, Bernal, Buenos Aires, B1876BXD, Argentina. ramiro.vergara@unq.edu.ar

Etchemendy, P. E. Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF). Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. CONICET. Sáenz Peña, Argentina.

Spiousas, I. Laboratorio de Acústica y Percepción Sonora (LAPSo), Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, CONICET, R. S. Peña 352, Bernal, Buenos Aires, B1876BXD, Argentina. ramiro.vergara@unq.edu.ar

Vergara, R. O. Laboratorio de Acústica y Percepción Sonora (LAPSo), Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, CONICET, R. S. Peña 352, Bernal, Buenos Aires, B1876BXD, Argentina. ramiro.vergara@unq.edu.ar

Abstract

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that associated blindness with a reduced ability to judge the absolute distance from sound sources. Our working hypotheses were: 1) Within reach, a blind subject will be able to make up for the lack of vision using proprioceptive information to calibrate the acoustic distance perception cues. 2) As the source becomes unreachable, blind people will show greater biases since, out of reach, the proposed mechanism for calibration could not be used. To approach these topics we carried out a series of auditory distance experiments in which we asked sighted and blind participants to report their distance estimates verbally or by reaching the sound source. Within reach results showed that blind participants performed better than (reaching) or similar to (verbal report) the sighted. The verbal report results showed similar biases between both groups. However, blind participants had less compressive responses than the sighted. Furthermore, blind participants showed more biased responses in the far field than in the peripersonal space, while sighted participants showed similar biases regardless of distance. Our results strongly suggest that the blind can calibrate their distance estimations through the use of proprioceptive spatial information.

Keywords:

auditory distance

multimodal calibration

blindness

sound localization

auditory perception.

Resumen

Este estudio tuvo como objetivo probar la hipótesis que asocia a la ceguera con una capacidad reducida para juzgar la distancia absoluta de fuentes sonoras. Nuestras hipótesis de trabajo fueron: 1) Dentro del alcance, un sujeto ciego podrá compensar la falta de visión utilizando información propioceptiva para calibrar las señales acústicas de percepción de distancia. 2) A medida que la fuente se vuelve inalcanzable, las personas ciegas mostrarán mayores sesgos ya que, fuera del alcance, no se podría utilizar el mecanismo de calibración propuesto. Para abordar estos temas, llevamos a cabo una serie de experimentos de distancia auditiva en los que les pedimos a los participantes videntes y ciegos que informaran sus estimaciones de distancia verbalmente o alcanzando la fuente de sonido. Los resultados dentro del alcance mostraron que los participantes ciegos se desempeñaron mejor que (en la tarea de reaching) o similar a (informe verbal) los videntes. Los resultados del informe verbal mostraron sesgos similares entre ambos grupos. Sin embargo, los participantes ciegos tenían respuestas mas compresivas que los videntes. Además, los participantes ciegos mostraron respuestas más sesgadas en el campo lejano que en el espacio peripersonal, mientras que los participantes videntes mostraron sesgos similares independientemente de la distancia. Nuestros resultados sugieren fuertemente que los ciegos pueden calibrar sus estimaciones de distancia mediante el uso de información espacial propioceptiva.

Palabras clave:

distancia auditiva

calibración multimodal

ceguera

localización de sonido

percepción auditiva.

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