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Updated: Jul 26, 2026

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition
Published on: October 29, 2018
Relations between psychophysical measures of spatial hearing and self-reported spatial-hearing abilities
T E M Van Esch1, M E Lutman, M Vormann
1* Department of Clinical and Experimental Audiology, Academic Medical Centre , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.
Objective:
The aim of the present study was to investigate how well the virtual psychophysical measures of spatial hearing from the preliminary auditory profile predict self-reported spatial-hearing abilities.
Design:
Virtual spatial-hearings tests (conducted unaided, via headphones) and a questionnaire were administered in five centres in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK. Correlations and stepwise linear regression models were calculated among a group of hearing-impaired listeners.
Study Sample:
Thirty normal-hearing listeners aged 19-39 years, and 72 hearing-impaired listeners aged 22-91 years with a broad range of hearing losses, including asymmetrical and mixed hearing losses.
Results:
Several significant correlations (between 0.24 and 0.54) were found between results of virtual psychophysical spatial-hearing tests and self-reported localization abilities. Stepwise linear regression analyses showed that the minimum audible angle (MAA) test was a significant predictor for self-reported localization abilities (5% extra explained variance), and the spatial speech reception threshold (SRT) benefit test for self-reported listening to speech in spatial situations (6% extra explained variance).
Conclusions:
The MAA test and spatial SRT benefit test are indicative measures of everyday binaural functioning. The binaural SRT benefit test was not found to predict self-reported spatial-hearing abilities.
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