Title
The Impact of Hearing Protection on Sound Localization and Orienting Behavior.
Abstract
The effect of hearing protection devices (HPDs) on sound localization was examined in the context of an auditory-cued visual search task. Participants were required to locate and identify a visual target in a field of 5, 20, or 50 visual distractors randomly distributed on the interior surface of a sphere. Four HPD conditions were examined: earplugs, earmuffs, both earplugs and earmuffs simultaneously (double hearing protection), and no hearing protection. In addition, there was a control condition in which no auditory cue was provided. A repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant main effects of HPD for both search time and head motion data (p < .05), indicating that the degree to which localization is disrupted by HPDs varies with the type of device worn. When both earplugs and earmuffs are worn simultaneously, search times and head motion are more similar to those found when no auditory cue is provided than when either earplugs or earmuffs alone are worn, suggesting that sound localization cues are so severely disrupted by double hearing protection the listener can recover little or no information regarding the direction of sound source origin. Potential applications of this research include high-noise military, aerospace, and industrial settings in which HPDs are necessary but wearing double protection may compromise safety and/or performance.
Year
DOI
Venue
2005
10.1518/0018720053653866
HUMAN FACTORS
Keywords
Field
DocType
noise,ergonomics,visual perception,injury prevention,human factors,behavior,visual search,control,repeated measures,motion,suicide prevention,sound localization,probability,analysis of variance,spheres,occupational safety
Visual search,Ear Protective Devices,Earmuffs,Psychology,Speech recognition,Sound localization,Audiology,Equipment Safety,Accident prevention,Perception,Visual perception
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
47
1
0018-7208
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.48
3
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Brian D. Simpson1398.77
Robert S. Bolia2385.34
Richard L. McKinley3306.79
Douglas S. Brungart4285.63