ASA S3.71 PDF download

ASA S3.71 – American National Standard Methods for Measuring the Effect of Head-worn Devices on Directional Sound Localization in the Horizontal Plane

The methods described in this standard provide data which may be used for assessment of sound localization performance open ear and with head-worn devices using human subjects.

The standard describes three measurement methods:
1) a low-complexity method using 8 loudspeakers to measure location discrimination performance;
2) a more complex, more robust method to measure localization error using 36 loudspeakers; and
3) a method to measure the functional impact of degraded localization cues on visual search time with 36 loudspeakers.

The standard specifies subject qualification criteria, test space acoustic requirements, details of the three methods, and reporting requirements. The standard does not provide guidance for measuring localization performance for elevation or for clinical spatial audiometry.