title: The perception of concurrent sound objects in harmonic complexes impairs gap detection.
abstract: Since the introduction of the concept of auditory scene analysis, there has been a paucity of work focusing on the theoretical explanation of how attention is allocated within a complex auditory scene. Here we examined signal detection in situations that promote either the fusion of tonal elements into a single sound object or the segregation of a mistuned element (i.e., harmonic) that "popped out" as a separate individuated auditory object and yielded the perception of concurrent sound objects. On each trial, participants indicated whether the incoming complex sound contained a brief gap or not. The gap (i.e., signal) was always inserted in the middle of one of the tonal elements. Our findings were consistent with an object-based account in which perception of two simultaneous auditory objects interfered with signal detection. This effect was observed for a wide range of gap durations and was greater when the mistuned harmonic was perceived as a separate object. These results suggest that attention may be initially shared among concurrent sound objects thereby reducing listeners' ability to process acoustic details belonging to a particular sound object. These findings provide new theoretical insight for our understanding of auditory attention and auditory scene analysis.
authors.affiliation: Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Ada W S
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jolicoeur
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vachon
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alain
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010897:Pitch Discrimination; D012016:Reference Values; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013017:Sound Localization; D013998:Time Perception; D055815:Young Adult