Web-based psychoacoustics: Hearing screening, infrastructure, and validation

Area of Science:

• Auditory Neuroscience
• Psychoacoustics
• Human Perception

Background:

• Web-based experiments are increasingly common in behavioral research but pose challenges for auditory perception studies due to limited acoustic control and inability to perform audiometry.
• Validating online methods is crucial for reliable data collection in psychoacoustics, especially for low-level sensory processing.

Approach:

• Developed a web-based experimental infrastructure using jsPsych and Django for dynamic psychoacoustic task sequences.
• Implemented a validated screening procedure to select participants with putative normal-hearing status based on suprathreshold tasks and surveys.
• Standardized headphone use and recruited participants via Prolific, comparing web-based results to established lab-based data.

Key Points:

• Web-based absolute thresholds for fundamental frequency discrimination, gap detection, and interaural time/level difference sensitivity showed excellent agreement with lab data.
• Online measurements of word identification, consonant confusion patterns, and co-modulation masking release effect also matched laboratory findings.
• The study provides open-source code for the developed web-based psychoacoustic infrastructure.

Conclusions:

• Web-based psychoacoustics offers a viable and reliable complement to traditional laboratory-based auditory research.
• The validated procedures enable broader participation and data collection for auditory perception studies.
• This approach facilitates the study of psychoacoustic phenomena in diverse populations and settings.