Observing long-term adaptation and generalization to an untrained set of head-related transfer functions
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Meyer, Julie
Picinali, Lorenzo
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Adaptation to altered or non-individual head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) has been widely studied in individuals with normal hearing. Studies have shown that after an adaptation period, individuals can significantly improve their sound localization performance with altered cues. Recently, it has been shown that after training with one set of HRTFs, improvements can also be observed with another set, a phenomenon referred to as generalization. This study provides significantly more evidence of this phenomenon by including a larger number of participant groups and a longer training period compared to prior work. The experiment involved four groups of participants: two control groups (one with individual HRTFs, one with non-individual HRTFs) only performing localization tests and two training groups (one with individual HRTFs, one with non-individual HRTFs) completing both localization tests and training sessions. In all cases, the stimulus consisted of a male speech sentence reproduced binaurally. Both training groups showed significant and comparable improvements in localization performance. Moreover, generalization effects were observed and found to be similar between the two training groups.
Date Issued
2026-05-01
Date Acceptance
2026-04-16
Citation
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2026, 159 (5), pp.3884-3895
ISSN
0001-4966
Publisher
Acoustical Society of America
Start Page
3884
End Page
3895
Journal / Book Title
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Volume
159
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2026 Acoustical Society of America. This is the author’s accepted manuscript made available under a CC-BY licence in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy)
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2026-05-06