Auditory and Cross-Modal Spatial Attention

This final report summarizes results of experiments and theoretical analysis exploring the role of attention, to spatial location or other object attributes, in understanding auditory and auditory-visual objects in complex settings. Work examined how attention affected the ability to understand one selective attention or two divided attention spoken messages, as well as to identify complex spectro-temporal patterns. Other experiments explored how ambiguous sound mixtures are interpreted and how perceptual objects are formed in complex settings. Theoretical analysis explored the degree to which different acoustic features may help explain the abilities of listeners in complex settings with multiple, competing sources. We find that spatially and non-spatially directed attention, including attention cued through visual signals, enables listeners to better process and understand sound in a complex setting.