Effective Onset Duration of Auditory Stimuli

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Abstract
In analyzing interaural temporal relations, the binaural system may receive information from one or more of three separate stimulus aspects: (1) difference in time of the start of stimulation, (2) difference in time between similar portions of the continuing wave form at the two ears, and (3) difference in time of the end of stimulation. In this study, the first and third kinds of difference were combined for convenience as “transient disparity”; the second was called “ongoing disparity.” The relative effectiveness of these two temporal relations in producing changes in auditory localization was investigated by finding, for various values of transient disparity, a value of ongoing disparity that brought the sound back to center. For a given value of transient disparity, the necessary ongoing disparity value varies as a function of stimulus duration. Transient disparity loses its effectiveness for stimulus durations greater than about 150 msec. For a duration of 100 msec, it takes roughly 35 times as much transient disparity as ongoing disparity to bring the sound to center; for a duration of 30 msec, it takes about 7 times as much; and for a duration of 10 msec, 4 to 5 times as much. From the working hypothesis that the relative values of transient and ongoing disparities are directly proportional to the durations over which each cue is operative, an “effective onset duration” appears to lie between 2 and 4 msec.

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