Subject Instructions for Improved Characterization of Auditory Representations Using Reverse Correlation

Abstract

Reverse Correlation (RC) is an established method for reconstructing auditory representations, that has recently emerged as a tool for characterizing the sounds experienced by tinnitus patients. Toward further optimizing RC for auditory research, the present work investigated the influence of subject instructions on characterization quality of tinnitus-like sounds. A validation study was conducted in which eighteen normal-hearing subjects were randomly assigned one of three candidate instruction sets, each inspired by the RC literature. Results show a significant effect of instruction set on characterization quality, and reveal that instructing subjects to detect a hidden signal in the RC stimuli resulted the best reconstruction.