In the dynamic 3D space, it is critical for survival to perceive size of an object and rescale it with distance from an observer. Humans can perceive distance via not only vision but also audition, which plays an important role in the localization of objects, especially in visually ambiguous environments. However, whether and how auditory distance information contributes to visual size perception is not well understood. To address this issue, we investigated the efficiency of size-distance scaling by using auditory distance information that was conveyed by binaurally recorded auditory stimuli. We examined the effects of absolute distance information of a single sound sequence (Experiment 1) and relative distance information between two sound sequences (Experiment 2) on visual size estimation performances in darkened and well-lit environments. We demonstrated that humans could perform size-distance disambiguation by using auditory distance information even in darkness. Curiously, relative distance information was more efficient in size-distance scaling than absolute distance information, suggesting a high reliance on relative auditory distance information in our visual spatial experiences. The results highlight a benefit of audiovisual interaction for size-distance processing and calibration of external events under visually degraded situations.

中文翻译：

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具有绝对和相对听觉距离信息的大小距离缩放。

在动态 3D 空间中，感知对象的大小并根据与观察者的距离重新缩放它对于生存至关重要。人类不仅可以通过视觉来感知距离，还可以通过听觉来感知距离，这在物体定位中起着重要作用，尤其是在视觉模糊的环境中。然而，听觉距离信息是否以及如何有助于视觉尺寸感知尚不清楚。为了解决这个问题，我们通过使用双耳记录的听觉刺激传达的听觉距离信息来研究尺寸-距离缩放的效率。我们检查了单个声音序列的绝对距离信息（实验 1）和两个声音序列之间的相对距离信息（实验 2）在黑暗和光线充足的环境中对视觉尺寸估计性能的影响。我们证明，即使在黑暗中，人类也可以通过使用听觉距离信息来进行大小距离消歧。奇怪的是，相对距离信息在尺寸距离缩放方面比绝对距离信息更有效，这表明我们的视觉空间体验高度依赖相对听觉距离信息。结果突出了视听交互在视觉退化情况下对外部事件的大小距离处理和校准的好处。