Male advantage in sound localization at cocktail parties
From a recent publication on spatial hearing:
Sex differences exist in the structural organization of the human brain and are related to cognitive abilities. Females usually outperform men in verbal fluency, verbal memory, perceptual speed, numerical calculation, and fine motor skills, whereas males are superior in visuospatial abilities, throwing accuracy, and mathematical reasoning. Here we demonstrated a male advantage in spatial abilities for the auditory modality. We employed a sound localization task based on the so-called “cocktail party situation”, requiring extraction of auditory information of a specific sound source when multiple competing sound sources were present. The results indicated better performance of males than females for localizing target sounds in a multi-source sound environment. This finding suggests a sex difference in the attentional mechanisms extracting spatial information of one acoustic event of interest from an auditory scene composed of multiple sound sources. It seems that the known male superiority in spatial abilities may be supramodal, rather than a specificity of the visual modality.
From a recent publication on spatial hearing:
Sex differences exist in the structural organization of the human brain and are related to cognitive abilities. Females usually outperform men in verbal fluency, verbal memory, perceptual speed, numerical calculation, and fine motor skills, whereas males are superior in visuospatial abilities, throwing accuracy, and mathematical reasoning. Here we demonstrated a male advantage in spatial abilities for the auditory modality. We employed a sound localization task based on the so-called “cocktail party situation”, requiring extraction of auditory information of a specific sound source when multiple competing sound sources were present. The results indicated better performance of males than females for localizing target sounds in a multi-source sound environment. This finding suggests a sex difference in the attentional mechanisms extracting spatial information of one acoustic event of interest from an auditory scene composed of multiple sound sources. It seems that the known male superiority in spatial abilities may be supramodal, rather than a specificity of the visual modality.
With only the abstract to read, it is clear that at best it only demonstrates that in the test performed, women did not to as well in focusing on a specific sound in the "cocktail party effect." We don't know if even this test was conclusive since unless you are willing to purchase the paper you don't know the sample size, test methodology, and other vital factors. And even if the differences are statistically significant, there is no proof that this is due to neurophysiological differences and not cultural causes resulting from the way the sexes are acculturated early in childhood in general or specifically with respect to the group the test population represents in common. Further, even if that were proven to be the case and it is attributable to neurophysiological differences, extending the conclusion to other aspect of hearing including other closely related aspects of localizational ability is a giant unwarranted leap. This all smells like junk science to me.
That's why I put
behind the thread title. What you said would in many ways apply to the tests regarding the precedence effect (early reflections) and many published detection thresholds in acoustics too. Is that "junk science" also?
My girlfriend is a lefty. Whenever I change anything about my sound system I'm always pretty enthusiastic when I invite her to the listening area to ask what she thinks. So far the response is usually the same.
"That's your thing honey, you know I can't tell the difference, I thought it sounded great before."
*shrug*
So how come ppl keep writing like "my wife could hear the difference from the kitchen" etc
There's several very good reasons for that. See my upcoming article in Linear Audio.
It's just a clever tactic to turn your attention from your stupid hobby to her, your lovely wife who just heard a difference in your system. How thoughtful of her to mention it. Now go give her a big hug and kiss, buy her a rose, take her out for dinner and then a nice evening stroll, perhaps an apertif by the waterfront. Then more kisses, some laughter and what do you know, there's a sparkle in her eye you haven't seen for quite some time. Holding hands, laughing...
All the while staying mum about your hobby lest you spoil the mood.
See? They're not so dumb are they?
All the while staying mum about your hobby lest you spoil the mood.
See? They're not so dumb are they?
Oh no, quite brilliant.
She does appreciate the sound system almost as much as I do, but to get a smile on her face, I've got to put on a movie like "I am Number 4" and wait for the scenes where he's using his powers that create a sound that threatens to crack the plaster in the living room.
But you are correct. Perhaps dinner and a beach walk are in order for this weekend
If there is a baby crying in one of the backrooms Mama will hear it - no matter how crowded or noisy the situation is.
Males stay attuned to the location of SWMBO as part of their survival mechanism because if she hears the line of BS you are feeding to that cute new admin assistant you are about to get a BIG dose of "verbal fluency, verbal memory, perceptual speed, numerical calculation, and fine motor skills".....
ps. I da South "fine motor skills" often involves the use of iron skillets and reloading your weapon of choice.
Males stay attuned to the location of SWMBO as part of their survival mechanism because if she hears the line of BS you are feeding to that cute new admin assistant you are about to get a BIG dose of "verbal fluency, verbal memory, perceptual speed, numerical calculation, and fine motor skills".....
ps. I da South "fine motor skills" often involves the use of iron skillets and reloading your weapon of choice.
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To go back on a serious road, this study is maybe plausible.
Maybe you know that males have stastically a far better sense of geographical orientation and understanding of the topography. This (as well as the evoqued visuospatial abilities, and throwing accuracy) can be explained because of the past : males hunting outside and females staying " at home ". A good hunter needs also better audio abilities for localisation of the prey or self warning.
So, these results look coherent in this context.
Maybe you know that males have stastically a far better sense of geographical orientation and understanding of the topography. This (as well as the evoqued visuospatial abilities, and throwing accuracy) can be explained because of the past : males hunting outside and females staying " at home ". A good hunter needs also better audio abilities for localisation of the prey or self warning.
So, these results look coherent in this context.
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