The influence of timbre and loudness on the localization of sounds / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946.
Date:
[1914?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The influence of timbre and loudness on the localization of sounds / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/22 (page 283)
    This view of the illusory function of tactual sensations in sound localisa¬ tion receives support from other data afforded by my subjects. Many of them, at their early stages of practice, seemed compelled to objectify the sound in tactual visual terms. Thus to one subject a sound at 90° v. “appears to come from a central point,” while one at 180° “appears to come from different sides as if entering the ear by various rays instead of by a central one.” Another subject said “ I can’t attend to the sensation as such; I have to fancy a motor cycle behind me,” or “ I fancy myself in a wood with the sound (given at 180°) low down at the end of the path before me.” A third subject observed “ I give each sound a body, and each is generally circular—a ball.” A fourth subject, who had described the variator sounds as generally coming down and hitting her, observed that the buzzer sounds “ seemed in many cases to remain in their place and to throw out a sort of pseudopod, like a wriggling worm pulling its tail through.” In view of these descriptions, need we hesitate to ascribe localisations of tactual sensation, when they occur, to an inevitable tendency to treat localised sounds as if they were external objects describable in visual and tactual language, and as if they hit the ear, face, vertex, or occiput according to their localisation determined on the basis of timbre and loudness ? IY. Conclusions. 1. The “ laterality ” of a sound (i.e. its estimated position in relation to the median “ sagittal ” plane) is determined by binaural differences or equality of intensity of the sensation.* Experimental changes in the timbre or loudness of a sound make no difference in its laterality. As soon as an infant begins to take notice of sounds, their laterality is at once appreciated. There are no trial movements of the head, this way or that, for sounds placed to one side of the median sagittal plane. The reception by one ear of a stimulus stronger than that reaching the other ear at once determines in the infant a movement of the head and eyes to bring the latter towards the source of the sound. 2. On the other hand, even in adult life, the grossest errors are made in determining the incidence of a sound (i.e. its estimated position in relation to the horizontal “ interaural ” line), unless the subject has been practised in the changes in timbre and loudness produced by such changes of incidence, or unless he is allowed to make movements of the head, the effect of which is to vary the timbre and loudness of the sound while it is being heard. * And, according to Lord Rayleigh, by binaural differences or identity of phase of the sound waves (see, however, footnote to p. 267).