Adapting to remapped auditory localization cues: A decision-theory model

This paper describes a model of adaptation to remapped auditory localizatio n cues that is based on previous decision-theory models of psychophysical p erformance. The present model extends earlier work by explicitly assuming t hat past experience affects subject perception and by quantifying how train ing causes subjects' responses to evolve over time. The model makes quantit ative predictions of total sensitivity, bias, and resolution for subjects i nvolved in experiments investigating spatial auditory adaptation. One assum ption of the model is that subjects cannot adapt to nonlinear rearrangement s of localization cues, which is consistent with previous experimental repo rts in both audition (Shinn-Cunningham, Durlach, & Held, 1998b) and vision (Bedford, 1993). The model assumes that, in spatial adaptation experiments, subjects learn to interpret a continuos internal decision variable differe ntly than normal; they do not learn to associate discrete stimulus-response pairs. This view is consistent with previous analyses of results from expe riments investigating adaptation to visual rearrangement, as well as with t he McCullough effect in vision (Bedford, 1993, 1995).