On the minimum audible angle--a decision theory approach.

The minimum audible angle (MAA) technique is a well-known psychoacoustical paradigm often used in the study of localization of sound. A difficulty with this paradigm, however, is that, in terms of decision theory, it is subject to two quite different interpretations. Although it is normally regarded as involving a discrimination task, the present work suggests that it is more likely to be an absolute identification task. Because of this difference in interpretation, it appears that previous work has overestimated the ability of listeners to localize sources of sound.