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Kolarik, Andrew 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5121-7512, Raman, Rajiv, Moore, Brian, Cirstea, Silvia, Gopalakrishnan, Sarika and Pardhan, Shahina
(2020)
The accuracy of auditory spatial judgments in the visually impaired is dependent on sound source distance.
Scientific Reports, 10.
ISSN 2045-2322
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Abstract
Blindness leads to substantial enhancements in many auditory abilities, and deficits in others. It is unknown how severe visual losses need to be before changes in auditory abilities occur, or whether the relationship between severity of visual loss and changes in auditory abilities is proportional and systematic. Here we show that greater severity of visual loss is associated with increased auditory judgments of distance and room size. On average participants with severe visual losses perceived sounds to be twice as far away, and rooms to be three times larger, than sighted controls. Distance estimates for sighted controls were most accurate for closer sounds and least accurate for farther sounds. As the severity of visual impairment increased, accuracy decreased for closer sounds and increased for farther sounds. However, it is for closer sounds that accurate judgments are needed to guide rapid motor responses to auditory events, e.g. planning a safe path through a busy street to avoid collisions with other people, and falls. Interestingly, greater visual impairment severity was associated with more accurate room size estimates. The results support a new hypothesis that crossmodal calibration of audition by vision depends on the severity of visual loss.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Sep 2021 00:24 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Jul 2023 09:33 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/81377 |
| DOI: | 10.17863/cam.54735 |
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