Auditory saltation: a new measure for an old illusion.

Auditory saltation is a mislocalization phenomenon in which click trains presented successively at two discrete spatial locations appear to originate from a smoothly varying series of source locations spanning the true source locations. The temporal parameters of this illusion are investigated with click stimuli delivered via headphones with the goal of establishing a portable test of the illusion. A simple rating scale was developed which required human participants to indicate the degree to which the perceived sound locations were heard as continuous ~evenly distributed across space! versus discontinuous. Control conditions were devised to provide a baseline against which to compare the illusion. Auditory saltation is discussed in terms of perceptual grouping. © 1998 Acoustical Society of America. @S0001-4966~98!05905-0#