ABSTRACT
Just as optic flow provides information about relative motion between the observer and the illuminated environment, acoustic flow provides information about relative motion between the observer and the audible environment. This similarity between optic and acoustic flow motivates the hypothesis that people might use acoustic flow for the perception and control of stance. This hypothesis has been confirmed in blind people. Experiment first determines whether the blindfolded sighted people could use acoustic flow to guide body sway. It sought to determine whether acoustic flow patterns were sufficient for performance of the tracking task. When the speakers were mounted on stationary stands within the room, information about room motion was available solely in reflected sound (i.e., acoustic flow). The current results indicate that acoustic guidance of whole body motion is robust even among people (in this case, sighted people) who, presumably, do not have a strong prior motivation to pursue this type of perception-action coupling.
