Selective adaptation in sound lateralization is not due to a repulsion effect

Abstract

Selective adaptation studies in dichotic sound lateralization have contributed to a three-channel model of lateralization mechanisms. They usually have employed highly-lateralized adaptor stimuli, and the expression of the selective adaptation is the perceptual shift of test tone locations away from that of the adaptor. The present study employed modestly lateralized adaptors so that any repulsion mechanism could be visualized in distorted position judgments for test tones on both sides of the adaptor stimuli. Comparison of position reports for tones lateralized using interaural time differences before and after selective adaptation provided no evidence for a repulsion effect.