Auditory/visual distance perception

Abstract

A considerable body of research suggests that the perception of sound source distance exhibits systematic biases. The distances of far sources are progressively underestimated, but near sources are overestimated. Such biases are typically not observed in vision, where perceived distance is found to be highly accurate under natural viewing conditions in which a variety of visual distance cues are available. Relatively little is known about how distance information from both auditory and visual modalities is combined in the perception of distance, however. This is surprising, given that auditory/visual aspects of directional perception have been extensively studied, primarily in relation to the “ventriloquist effect.” Here, two recent experiments on auditory/visual distance perception are summarized. The results from both suggest that not only is perceived distance less accurate in the auditory modality than in vision, but it is also considerably less precise. These results explain why visual information, when available, appears to dominate auditory information in the perception of distance. [Work supported by NEI.]