I always knew that men are better listeners ... ;-)

[Rudolf]

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.

[jerome69]

Yes, scientifically proved

[Soundminded]

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.

[Keriwena]

You guys ever watch "The View"? Or "Real Housewives"? Most males I know have trouble with several people talking at once. Localising, maybe, but comprehension? I doubt it.

[Rudolf]

Originally Posted by Soundminded

With only the abstract to read, ...

That's why I put behind the thread title.

We don't know if even this test was conclusive since ... This all smells like junk science to me.

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?

[SY]

Helps to actually read the paper.

40 subjects, 20 of each gender. All right handed, curiously.

[DrDyna]

Originally Posted by SY

Helps to actually read the paper.

40 subjects, 20 of each gender. All right handed, curiously.

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*

[SY]

Show her this:

Southpaw Jones: Left Versus Right

[DrDyna]

Originally Posted by SY

Show her this:

Southpaw Jones: Left Versus Right

Haha, for sure. That's awesome.

[gainphile]

So how come ppl keep writing like "my wife could hear the difference from the kitchen" etc