Stream segregation of narrow-band noise bursts.
Normally hearing adults heard rapid alternations of a pair of band-limited noise bursts that had flat spectra (in terms of equal-loudness weighting of components) and sharp band edges. The bursts differed in center frequency (CF), but were matched on overall intensity, on bandwidth (BW) on a log frequency scale, and (roughly) on pitch strength. Listeners judged the ease with which the sequence could be held together perceptually in a single auditory stream (vs. forming separate high and low streams). Involuntary segregation was examined as a function of the following measures of frequency separation of the alternating noise bands: (1) the closest band edges, (2) the most remote band edges, (3) the CFs of the bands on a logarithmic scale, and (4) the BWs. Segregation was best predicted from the separation of the two CFs on a log-frequency scale (very strong effect). Increasing the BWs of the two alternating bursts (the same size, in log frequency, for both bands) also led to greater segregation (very weak effect).
Bregman
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Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. bregman@hebb.psych.mcgill.ca
Ahad
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Van Loon
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C
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008144:Loudness Perception; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D010898:Pitch Perception; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013018:Sound Spectrography