The study presented here explored theories that account for echolocation and established an audiometric test battery for blind persons that is designed to predict success in echolocation. Statistical analyses revealed significant positive correlations between particular auditory measures and echolocation performance. No relationships were found between high-frequency hearing sensitivity and echolocation performance.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AshmeadD., HillE., & TalorC. (1989). Obstacle perception by congenitally blind children.Perception and Psychophysics, 46, 425–433.
2.
AuW., & MartinD. (1989). Insights into dolphin sonar discrimination capabilities from human listening experiments.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 86, 1662–1670.
3.
BassettI., & EastmondJ. (1964). Echolocation: Measurement of pitch versus distance for sounds reflected from a flat surface.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 36, 911–917.
4.
BledsoeC. (1980). Originators of orientation and mobility training. In WelshR., & BlaschB. (Eds.), Foundations of Orientation and Mobility (pp. 581–624). New York: American Foundation for the Blind.
5.
BrabynJ., & StrelowE. (1977). Computer-analyzed measures of characteristics of human locomotion and mobility.Behavior Research Methods and Instrumentation, 9, 456–462.
6.
CotzinM., & DallenbachK. (1950). Facial vision: The role of pitch and loudness in the perception of obstacles by the blind.American Journal of Psychology, 63, 485–515.
7.
HarrisJ. (1948). Discrimination of pitch: Suggestions toward method and procedure.American Journal of Psychology, 61, 309–322.
8.
HausfieldS., PowerR., GortaA., & HarrisP. (1982). Echo perception of shape and texture by sighted subjects.Perception and Motor Skills, 55, 623–632.
9.
HolmS. (1979). A simple sequentially rejective multiple test procedure.Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, 6, 65–70.
10.
JergerJ., SheddJ., & HarfordE. (1959). On the detection of extremely small changes in sound intensity.Archives of Otolaryngology, 69, 200–211.
11.
JuurmaJ. (1970a). On the accuracy of obstacle detection by the blind: Part 1.New Outlook, 64, 65–72.
12.
JuurmaJ. (1970b). On the accuracy of obstacle detection by the blind: Part 2.New Outlook, 64, 104–118.
13.
KellogW. (1962). Sonar system of the blind.Science, 137, 399–404.
14.
KohlerI. (1964). Orientation by aural cues, American Foundation for the Blind Research Bulletin, 4, 14–53.
15.
McCartyB., & WorchelP. (1954). Rate of motion and object perception in the blind.New Outlook, 48, 316–322.
16.
RiceC. (1967). Human echo perception.Science, 155, 656–664.
17.
SchenkmanB., & JanssonG. (1986). The detection and localization of objects by the blind with the aid of long-cane tapping sounds.Human Factors, 28, 607–618.
18.
StrelowE., & BrabynJ. (1981). Use of foreground and background information in visually guided locomotion.Perception, 10, 191–198.
19.
StrelowE., & BrabynJ. (1982). Locomotion by the blind controlled by natural sounds.Perception, 11, 653–660.
20.
SupaM., CotzinM., & DallenbachK. (1944). Facial vision: The perception of obstacles by the blind.American Journal of Psychology, 57, 133–183.
21.
WorchelP., & DallenbachK. (1947). Facial vision: Perception of obstacles by the deaf-blind.American Journal of Psychology, 60, 502–553.
22.
WorchelP., MauneyJ., & AndrewJ. (1950). The perception of obstacles by the blind.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 40, 746–751.
