Perceiving sequential dependencies in auditory streams

This study examined the ability of human listeners to detect the presence and judge the strength of a statistical dependency among the elements comprising sequences of sounds. The statistical dependency was imposed by specifying transition matrices that determined the likelihood of occurrence of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2013-08, Vol.134 (2), p.1215-1231
Main Authors: Kidd, Jr, Gerald, Mason, Christine R, Streeter, Timothy, Thompson, Eric R, Best, Virginia, Wakefield, Gregory H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Analysis of Variance
Audiometry, Pure-Tone
Auditory Perception
Humans
Judgment
Likelihood Functions
Markov Chains
Models, Statistical
Noise - adverse effects
Perceptual Masking
Psychoacoustics
Signal Detection, Psychological
Time Factors
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Summary:This study examined the ability of human listeners to detect the presence and judge the strength of a statistical dependency among the elements comprising sequences of sounds. The statistical dependency was imposed by specifying transition matrices that determined the likelihood of occurrence of the sound elements. Markov chains were constructed from these transition matrices having states that were pure tones/noise bursts that varied along the stimulus dimensions of frequency and/or interaural time difference. Listeners reliably detected the presence of a statistical dependency in sequences of sounds varying along these stimulus dimensions. Furthermore, listeners were able to discriminate the relative strength of the dependency in pairs of successive sound sequences. Random variation along an irrelevant stimulus dimension had small but significant adverse effects on performance. A much greater decrement in performance was found when the sound sequences were concurrent. Likelihood ratios were computed based on the transition matrices to specify Ideal Observer performance for the experimental conditions. Preliminary modeling efforts were made based on degradations of Ideal Observer performance intended to represent human observer limitations. This experimental approach appears to be useful for examining auditory "stream" formation and maintenance over time based on the predictability of the constituent sound elements.
ISSN:0001-4966
1520-8524
DOI:10.1121/1.4812276