Temporal Auditory Acuity in Blind and Sighted Subjects: A Signal Detection Analysis

Abstract

Temporal auditory sensitivity was compared in five adventitiously blind and five normally sighted subjects in a signal-detection paradigm. Following determination of individual auditory flutter fusion (AFF) thresholds the subjects were required to make forced-choice responses between a fluttering and fused white noise under stimulus probabilities of 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75. From these data indices of sensory sensitivity ( d') and response bias (Beta) were computed and compared. Analysis indicated no significant differences in auditory sensitivity between the two groups. These findings further weaken the traditional hypothesis of sensory compensation.