Subject instructions for improved characterization of auditory representations using reverse correlation.

Reverse correlation (RC) is an established method for reconstructing auditory representations and has recently emerged as a tool for characterizing the sounds experienced by tinnitus patients. Tod further optimize 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 18 normal-hearing subjects were randomly assigned 1 of 3 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 in the best reconstruction.