The contribution of spectral and temporal cues to the auditory perception of size and speed of rolling balls

This paper investigates the auditory perception of source properties of a rolling object. Previous auditory perception experiments have shown that listeners are generally able to discriminate differences in the size and the speed of rolling wooden balls. In the current study, we investigated whether listeners base their judgments on spectral or on temporal information. Recorded sounds of rolling balls were manipulated by merging the temporal characteristics of one sound with the spectral characteristics of another. In this way 16 stimuli were obtained from four original recordings, which were presented pairwise. If listeners were asked to indicate the larger ball from two sounds, they had a preference for the sound with the spectral content of a large ball. If listeners had to indicate the faster ball from two sounds, they preferred the sound with the spectral content of a small ball, and, to a lesser degree, with the spectral content of a fast rolling ball. The temporal information in the sounds was of minor importance for the range of stimuli used in these experiments.