title: Does auditory streaming require attention? Evidence from attentional selectivity in short-term memory.
abstract: R. P. Carlyon, R. Cusack, J. M. Foxton, and I. H. Robertson (2001) have argued that attention is crucial for auditory streaming. The authors review R. P. Carlyon et al.'s (2001) arguments and suggest that a pertinent literature, the irrelevant sound paradigm--demonstrating preattentive auditory streaming--has been overlooked. In illustration of this alternative approach, the authors include a novel single experiment demonstrating the impact of preattentive auditory streaming on short-term serial memory. It is concluded that R. P. Carlyon et al.'s (2001) results do not definitively demonstrate that auditory streaming processes are dependent on attention; indeed, they are compatible with alternative accounts of the relationship between perceptual organization and attention.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Cardiff University, United Kingdom. macken@cardiff.ac.uk
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Macken
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tremblay
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Houghton
authors.forename: Alastair P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Nicholls
authors.forename: Dylan M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention; D001307:Auditory Perception; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011939:Mental Recall; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010897:Pitch Discrimination; D011582:Psychological Theory; D013017:Sound Localization