Does auditory streaming require attention? Evidence from attentional selectivity in short-term memory.
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.
Macken
William J
WJ
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, United Kingdom. macken@cardiff.ac.uk
Tremblay
Sébastien
S
Houghton
Robert J
RJ
Nicholls
Alastair P
AP
Jones
Dylan M
DM
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