Localization dominance in the median-sagittal plane: effect of stimulus duration

Localization dominance is an aspect of the precedence effect (PE) in which the leading source dominates the perceived location of a simulated echo (lagging source). It is known to be robust in the horizontal/azimuthal dimension, where binaural cues dominate localization. However, little is known about localization dominance in conditions that minimize binaural cues, and most models of precedence treat the phenomena as "belonging" to the binaural system. Here, localization dominance in the median-sagittal plane was studied where binaural cues are greatly reduced, and monaural spectral/level cues are thought to be the primary cues used for localization. Lead-lag pairs of noise bursts were presented from locations spaced in 15 degrees increments in the frontal, median-sagittal plane, with a 2-ms delay in their onsets, for source durations of 1, 10, 25, and 50-ms. Intermixed with these trials were single-speaker trials, in which lead and lag were summed and presented from one speaker. Listeners identified the speaker that was nearest to the perceived source location. With single-speaker stimuli, localization improves as signal duration is increased. Furthermore, evidence of elevation compression was found with a dependence on duration. With lead-lag pairs, localization dominance occurs in the median plane, and becomes more robust with increased signal duration. These results suggest that accurate localization of a co-located lead-lag pair is necessary for localization dominance to occur when the lag is spatially separated from the lead.