The development of basic auditory processes in infants.

Reviews studies of basic auditory processes (absolute and differential thresholds, masking) in infants. It is argued that autonomic and physiological responses to sounds may measure "attentional" thresholds rather than thresholds of hearing. A behavioral technique for threshold assessment involving reinforcement of a head turn to a sound source is described and used to determine thresholds for sounds in quiet and in background noise. (French abstract) (84 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frequency selectivity in the parakeet (Melopsittacus undulatus) studied with psychophysical tuning curves.

Seven parakeets were trained to avoid shock during pure-tone stimulation. A modified method of limits was used to measure detection thresholds of the pure tones. The intensity of masker tones, at numerous frequencies, was varied to measure the masked threshold of a probe-tone signal set at a fixed frequency and intensity. Masking curves were obtained for 3 probe tones (.63, 1.6, and 2.5 kHz) at each of 5 sensation levels (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 db). The masking curves from this procedure, which are frequently referred to as "psychophysical tuning curves," provide an indication of frequency selectivity. Results are compared with analogous data in other species and suggest that frequency analysis in the parakeet ear is somewhat less accurate than in the mammalian ear. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term memory for the timing of auditory and visual signals.

Short-term memory for the timing of irregular sequences of signals has been said to be more accurate when the signals are auditory than when they are visual. No support for this contention was obtained when the signals were beeps vs flashes (Exps 1 and 3) nor when they were sets of spoken vs typewritten digits (Exps 4 and 5). On the other hand, support was obtained both for beeps vs flashes (Exps 2 and 5) and for repetitions of a single spoken digit vs repetitions of a single typewritten digit (Exp 6) when the Ss silently mouthed a nominally irrelevant item during sequence presentation. Also, the timing of sequences of auditory signals, whether verbal (Exp 7) or nonverbal (Exps 8 and 9), was more accurately remembered when the signals within each sequence were identical. The findings are considered from a functional perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual specificity of auditory priming: Implicit memory for voice intonation and fundamental frequency.

Five experiments explored the effect of acoustic changes between study and test on implicit and explicit memory for spoken words. Study-test changes in the speaker's voice, intonation, and fundamental frequency produced significant impairments of auditory priming on implicit tests of auditory identification and stem completion but had little or no effect on explicit recall and recognition tests (Exps 1–4). However, study-test changes in overall decibel level had no effect on priming on an auditory stem-completion test or on cued-recall performance (Exp 5). The results are consistent with the idea that fundamental frequency information is represented in a perceptual representation system that plays an important role in auditory priming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Auditory priming: Implicit and explicit memory for words and voices.

Five experiments explore priming effects on auditory identification and completion tasks as a function of semantic and nonsemantic encoding tasks and whether speaker's voice is same or different at study and test. Auditory priming was either unaffected by the study task manipulation (Exps 2, 4, and 5) or was less affected than was explicit memory (Exps 1 and 3). Study-to-test changes of speaker's voice had significant effects on priming when white noise masked target items on the identification test (Exps 1 and 2) or the stem-completion test (Exp 5). However, significant voice change effects were observed on priming of completion performance when stems were spoken clearly (Exps 3 and 4). Results are consistent with the idea that a presemantic auditory perceptual representation system plays an important role in the observed priming. Alternative explanations of the presence or absence of voice change effects under different task conditions are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Size of critical band in infants, children, and adults.

Masked thresholds at two signal frequencies (0.8 and 4 kHz) were obtained from listeners aged 6.5 months, 2 years, 5 years, and 20.5 years in the presence of constant spectrum level, narrow-band maskers of differing bandwidths. Consistent with the classical results of H. Fletcher (1940), masked threshold for all age groups increased with bandwidth up to a critical width, beyond which further increases in bandwidth were ineffective in increasing threshold. These critical widths (estimates of critical band size) did not change substantially with age (critical widths for infants were no more than 50% larger than those of adults) despite substantial changes in masked thresholds with age. Thus, contrary to previous claims, changes in auditory filter width cannot account for developmental changes in masked or absolute thresholds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interval and contour in serial pitch perception by a passerine bird, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris).

Examined the capacity of starlings to perceive and process pitch information in serial acoustic patterns in 7 experiments. Exps I–III studied the discrimination of sequences of tones that rose or fell in pitch when the interval size between successive pitches changed relative to a standard baseline interval. The rising/falling discrimination maintained itself—the birds showed perceptual constancy—when intervals were halved, varied randomly in size, or changed to a continuous frequency sweep. Exps IV–VI examined discrimination performance when pitch contour (i.e., up and down pitch relation from tone to tone) was changed from the baseline patterns. Ss responded preferentially to early rising/falling pitch information on a pitch sequence; they ignored later relative pitch information even when it contradicted early information. However, they could delay pitch processing if initial tones lacked up or down pitch cues. Exp VII was an exploration of the birds' consistent predilection to use absolute frequency value, as opposed to relative pitch, as a discriminative cue in pitch pattern perception. Results suggest a comparison between the cognitive ability of humans and that of animals to process serial acoustic information. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repetition blindness between words: Nature of the orthographic and phonological representations involved.

Repetition Blindness (RB) is the failure to recall the 2nd instance of a rapidly presented word. Five experiments investigated the orthographic and phonological representations involved in RB. Exps 1 and 2 found that the RB effect between orthographic neighbors is modulated by the relative frequency of the words, but not their absolute frequency. Exp 3 showed that the reduced RB effect between neighbors as compared with identical words is due to the reduced orthographic overlap, not to a lack of morphological or semantic overlap. Exps 4 and 5 showed that the RB effect occurs between phonologically related items, and that phonological and frequency properties of the target's orthographic neighbors affect the size of the effect. It is concluded that orthographic RB and phonological RB are sensitive to the target's neighborhood organization and arise from similar mechanisms, but at different stages of processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence for an across-frequency, between-channel process in asymptotic monaural temporal gap detection

Monaurally measured temporal gap detection (TGD) thresholds characteristically increase as the frequency difference is increased over a range of about half an octave to an octave between two sinusoids that mark the onset and offset of the silent gap. For greater sinusoidal frequency separations, the TGD thresholds often become asymptotic. This pattern probably reflects two different processes. The first process likely reflects within-channel processing within a single auditory filter or channel. The second process is less certain, but may reflect between-channel processing of the silent gap stimulus across two or more independent frequency channels. To evaluate the hypothesis that asymptotic monaural gap detection can be explained by a simple between-channel process, TGD thresholds were measured as a function of frequency separation between a pregap sinusoid presented to the left ear (channel 1) and a postgap sinusoid, of higher frequency, presented to the right ear (channel 2). The rationale for dichotic presentation of the sinusoidal markers and gap signal followed from the fact that the gap detection task must be performed between two independent channels by combining the outputs from each channel (ear) and recovering the gap information centrally. The resulting TGD thresholds for pregap sinusoids from 250 to 4000 Hz were relatively invariant and increased only slightly with increasing marker frequency separation. The average TGD thresholds for four listeners were in the range of 30 to 40 ms, which corresponded closely with their asymptotic TGD thresholds for the same set of stimulus conditions measured monaurally. This correspondence of the two data sets supports an across-frequency, between-channel process for asymptotic monaural gap detection at marker frequency separations greater than about half an octave.     

Hearing and vocalizations in the orange-fronted conure (Aratinga canicularis).

The auditory sensitivities of the orange-fronted conure (Aratinga canicularis) were examined in relation to the spectral characteristics of its vocalizations. Absolute thresholds, masked thresholds, frequency difference limens, and intensity difference limens for pure tones were obtained using psychoacoustic techniques. In general, hearing abilities are similar to those found in many avian auditory generalists. One exception is the unusually low critical ratio (masked threshold) between 2.0 and 4.0 kHz, similar to that previously found in the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus). These auditory sensitivities were compared with average spectra for (a) contact calls and (b) a general sample of vocalizations recorded from wild birds. The spectral regions of both greatest vocal energy and best auditory sensitivity were between 2.0 and 5.0 kHz. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representational aspects of word imageability and word frequency as assessed through word association.

Assessed the effects of word imageability and word frequency (WF) in word association (WA). Exps 1 and 2 employed the discrete WA task, whereas Exp 3 used the continued WA task. Data from Exps 1–3 showed that word imageability strongly determines responding in WA, whereas WF hardly affects it. Exp 4 (lexical decision) and 5 (word naming) explored the possibility that WF effects on the word-recognition stage in WA might have interfered with any effect of WF on the association-retrieval stage, a possibility that was not borne out by data. Exps 6–8 examined whether the absence of frequency effects on WA in Exps 1–3 might have been due to the fact that the WF classes had a restricted range. A new set of stimulus materials was constructed, with frequency classes further apart. Some small effects of this variable on WA were found. Results point out that the concept nodes for high-imageability words contain more information than those of low-imageability words and that relatively strong links depart fron the former type of nodes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The revelation effect: When disguising test items induces recognition.

Documented here is a bias whereby items are more likely to be judged as having been presented beforehand if they are disguised in some way and so have to be discovered or "revealed." The bias was found for test words that were unfolded letter by letter (Exps 1 and 3), presented with their letters either transposed (Exps 2 and 3) or individually rotated (Exps 4 and 5) or rotated as a whole (Exp 5), and for test numbers that were presented in the form of Roman numerals (Exp 6) or equations (Exp 7). The bias occurred both for items that were presented beforehand and for those that were not. No bias was found when words were judged, not for prior occurrence, but for typicality as category instances (Exp 8), lexicality (Exp 9), frequency of general usage (Exp 10), or number of times encountered during the preceding week (Exp 11). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word familiarity and frequency in visual and auditory word recognition.

Four experiments investigated printed word frequency and subjective rated familiarity. Words of varied printed frequency and subjective familiarity were presented. A reaction time (RT) advantage for high-familiarity and high-frequency words was found in visual (Exp 1) and auditory (Exp 2) lexical decision. In Exps 3 and 4, a cued naming task elicited a naming response after a specified delay after presentation. In Exp 3, naming of visual words showed a frequency effect with no naming delay. The frequency effect diminished at longer delay intervals. Naming times for auditorily presented words (Exp 4) showed no frequency effect at any delay. Both naming experiments showed familiarity effects. The relevance of these results are discussed in terms of the role of printed frequency for theories of lexical access, task- and modality-specific effects, and the nature of subjective familiarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of higher order auditory processes in younger and older adults.

The authors conducted 3 experiments investigating the effects of aging on higher order auditory processes. They compared younger and older adults with respect to (a) their auditory channel capacity, (b) the extent of their top-down control over auditory gain, and (c) their ability to focus attention on a narrow band of frequencies. To ensure that subclinical cochlear processing deficits in older adults (e.g., higher thresholds, poorer discrimination of frequency and intensity differences) did not limit performance, the authors used only stimuli that were perfectly discriminable by all participants. No age differences were found in any of these experiments, suggesting that some higher order auditory processes (e.g., top-down control over auditory gain, auditory attention) are preserved in normal aging, despite numerous age-related declines in peripheral auditory functionality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Auditory models of formant frequency discrimination for isolated vowels

Thresholds for formant discrimination of female and male vowels are significantly elevated by two stimulus factors, increases in formant frequency and fundamental frequency [Kewley-Port et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 100, 2462-2470 (1996)]. The present analysis systematically examined whether auditory models of vowel sounds, including excitation patterns, specific loudness, and a Gammatone filterbank, could explain the effects of stimulus parameters on formant thresholds. The goal was to determine if an auditory metric could be specified that reduced variability observed in the thresholds to a single-valued function across four sets of female and male vowels. Based on Sommers and Kewley-Port [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 99, 3770-3781 (1996)], four critical bands around the test formant were selected to calculate a metric derived from excitation patterns. A metric derived from specific loudness difference (delta Sone) was calculated across the entire frequency region. Since analyses of spectra from Gammatone filters gave similar results to those derived from excitation patterns, only the 4-ERB (equivalent rectangular bandwidth) and delta Sone metrics were analyzed in detail. Three criteria were applied to the two auditory metrics to determine if they were single-valued functions relative to formant thresholds for female and male vowels. Both the 4-ERB and delta Sone metrics met the criteria of reduced slope, reduced effect of fundamental frequency, although delta Sone was superior to 4-ERB in reducing overall variability. Results suggest that the auditory system has an inherent nonlinear transformation in which differences in vowel discrimination thresholds are almost constant in the internal representation.     

Measurement of the sensitivities of information-processing channels for frequency change and for amplitude change by a titration method.

Psychophysical evidence that the auditory system processes amplitude changes (AM) and frequency changes (FM) independently, at least to a 1st approximation, has been explained by suggesting that the human auditory system contains functional subunits ("channels") selectively sensitive to FM and AM. However, because the ear's sensitivity curve is not flat, a pure FM tone may stimulate the AM as well as the FM channels. A "titration" method is described that is designed to uncover the properties of FM channels by cancelling the input to the AM channels. This method offers a way to study the properties of the FM channel in isolation and to identify any crosstalk between the FM and AM channels. Titration measurements from 4 Ss show that thresholds for the FM channel can be appreciably different from thresholds for a pure FM tone. (French abstract) (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The automated prediction of hearing thresholds in sleeping subjects using auditory steady-state evoked potentials

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between auditory steady-state evoked potentials (SSEPs) and behavioral thresholds in sleeping subjects. DESIGN: 60 adults and children with hearing thresholds ranging from normal to profound were selected on the basis of appropriate audiograms. Behavioral audiograms were determined at the octave frequencies 250-4000 Hz. These behavioral thresholds were then compared with the SSEP thresholds obtained during natural sleep for adults, or natural or sedated sleep for children. RESULTS: A strong relationship between behavioral and SSEP thresholds was observed. The strength of the relationship increased with increasing frequency and increasing degree of the loss. On the basis of these data, the prediction of behavioral thresholds from SSEP levels was determined. It was found that the standard deviation of the error in this prediction decreased with increasing frequency and increasing degree of the loss. There was no significant age effect in the results obtained at any of the frequencies. CONCLUSION: The results suggest the SSEP technique can be used as a predictor of behavioral threshold in adults and children at the frequencies 250-4000 Hz.     

Movement detection by cats: Invariance with direction and target configuration.

Measured absolute thresholds for movement detection in 3 cats and 2 humans under similar conditions. A 2-alternative spatial forced-choice procedure was used with the method of constant stimuli. When targets were moving random-dot patterns, cat thresholds ranged from .6° to 2.3°/sec, while human thresholds were approximately .05°/sec. Similar thresholds were found for cats tested with square wave gratings ranging in spatial frequency from .18 to 1 cycle/degree. Neither cats nor humans showed any directional asymmetry for motion detection. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Auditory evoked potentials and acoustically-directed behavior of nestlings

Characteristics of auditory evoked potentials (EP) were studied in 1.5 to 7.5 days old Pied Flycatchers nestlings (Ficedula hypoleuca) with chronically implanted electrodes in the field L (analogue of the mammal's auditory cortex). EPs simultaneously with behaviour were recorded in nestlings under conditions similar to natural, in response to "feeding" calls and pure tones of different frequency and intensity. It was found that EP generation thresholds do not depend on the sum total of factors which influence the organization of feeding behaviour. The EP generation threshold is by 13-36 dB (for different frequencies) below that of the appearance of feeding responses in nestling with a maximum high motivation. It is suggested that the realization of inborn behaviour with a signal basis needs not only an integration (formed in the process of embryogenesis) of a definite sensory input with a complex of structures of the "feeding centre", but also the presence of a massive modality-specific inflow.     

Correction to Timberlake, Wahl, and King.

Reports an error in the article, "Stimulus and Response Contingencies in the Misbehavior of Rats" by William Timberlake, Glenda Wahl, and Deborah King (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 1982, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 62-85). The abscissa of Figures 1, 2, 5, and 6 were incorrectly labeled. In each case, the word DAYS should replace the word TRIALS. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1982-20408-001.) Misbehavior by rats was produced in Exps I (16 Wistar female albino rats) and II (15 Sprague-Dawley female albino rats) by pairing a ball bearing with food or by requiring contact with the ball bearing for food (Exps IV, 6 Ss, and V, 11 Ss). Misbehavior occurred before and after eating the food pellet. The frequency, complexity, and duration of prepellet misbehavior was increased by delay of food until after the ball bearing exited (or was programmed to exit) and by requiring contact with the bearing to obtain food. Alternative goal-directed behaviors occurred in Pavlovian contingencies in which food was delivered before the bearing was programmed to exit. Postpellet misbehavior tended to occur when food was delivered before the bearing was programmed to exit and before S released the bearing. Omission of food delivery on contact reduced the duration, complexity, and frequency of misbehavior, although experienced Ss continued to contact (Exp III, 15 Ss). Misbehavior was affected by both stimulus- and response-reward contingencies but showed characteristic organization and topography under both types of contingency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)