Interaural recalibration of phonetic categories

Abstract

Recalibration is a learning process in which perceptual boundaries between speech-sounds adjust through exposure to a supplementary source of information. Using a dichotic-listening methodology, the experiments reported here establish interaural recalibration—in which an ambiguous speech sound in one ear is recalibrated on the basis of a clear sound presented to the other ear. This demonstrates a previously unknown form of recalibration and shows that location-specific recalibration occurs even when people are unaware of location differences between the sounds involved.