Auditory Cues in the Perception of Self Motion ∗

Despite its potential importance, few studies have methodically examined the role of auditory cues to the perception of self-motion. Here we describe a series of experiments that investigate the relative roles of various combinations of physical motion and decreasing sound source intensity cues to the perception of linear self-motion. Self-motion was simulated using either (i) physical motion only, (ii) moving audio-cues only, (iii) decreasing intensity cues, and (iv) physical motion coupled with moving audio-cues. In all conditions an over-estimation of self-motion of measures that varied systematically with the simulated acceleration. Of particular interest was that audio cues combined with physical motion cues resulted in more accurate estimates of self-motion than did either audio or physical motion cues in isolation. AES 116 CONVENTION, BERLIN, GERMANY, 2004 MAY 8–11