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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 17, 2026

Sound Source Localization Testing in Single-sided Deafness Following Bone Conduction Intervention

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Published on: December 20, 2024

Numerical value biases sound localization.

Edward J Golob^1,2,3, Jörg Lewald^4,5, Stephan Getzmann^4,5

¹Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA. edward.golob@utsa.edu.

Scientific Reports

|December 10, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study reveals that number words can influence how we perceive sound location, affecting auditory spatial judgments. This lexical influence on perception suggests numbers are mapped spatially, impacting sound localization.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive psychology
Auditory perception
Psycholinguistics

Background:

Speech recognition involves processing acoustic features and word meaning.
The influence of lexical information on basic sensory perception is not well understood.
Investigating the reverse pattern: lexical influences on basic perception.

Purpose of the Study:

To test for lexical influence on auditory spatial perception.
To examine how digit magnitude affects sound localization judgments.
To explore the relationship between number magnitude and spatial perception.

Main Methods:

Four experiments were conducted using pointing and 2-alternative forced choice tasks.
Subjects made spatial judgments of number stimuli (digits 1-9).
Perceptual judgments of sound location were analyzed as a function of digit magnitude.

Main Results:

A linear left-to-right bias was observed for localizing smaller-to-larger numbers near the median plane.
Lateral locations showed a central-eccentric bias in pointing tasks.
Prior number location influenced subsequent judgments, biasing them towards the opposite side.

Conclusions:

Findings support a lexical influence on auditory spatial perception.
A linear spatial mapping for numbers occurs near the midline, with complex relations at lateral locations.
Results suggest dedicated spatial channels for auditory processing, potentially including midline representation.