Room acoustics requirements for a localization experiment

[Daniel Oberfeld <oberfeld@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear list,

a colleague from the medical department asked me for help. He wants to 
measure the minimum audible angle (MAA) in patients with hearing 
problems, in order to detect deficits in localization compared to 
normally hearing listeners. In his medical/audiology setting, no 
anechoic room is available. He wants to use broadband stimuli, 
approximately 100 Hz to 8000 Hz. Now he is wondering what the minimum 
requirements concerning room acoustics for such an experiment are.

As I know that many experts in the field of localization are subscribed 
to this list, I'd be very interested in your opinion!

I'd guess that an attenuation of the direct reflections is most important?

And probably someone might also be able to recommend some simple 
technical measures one could take for making a normal, non-anechoic 
audiology room more suitable for such an experiment. The room size is 
approximately 3 x 4 x 2.5 meters.

Looking forward to your responses!

Best

Daniel

--
Dr. Daniel Oberfeld-Twistel
Johannes Gutenberg - Universitaet Mainz
Department of Psychology
Experimental Psychology
Wallstrasse 3
55122 Mainz
Germany

Phone ++49 (0) 6131 39 39274
Fax   ++49 (0) 6131 39 39268
http://www.staff.uni-mainz.de/oberfeld/