Abstract: Recognition memory for consonants and vowels selected from within and between phonetic categories was examined in a delayed comparison discrimination task. Accuracy of discrimination for synthetic vowels selected from both within and between categories was inversely related to the magnitude of the comparison interval. In contrast, discrimination of synthetic stop consonants remained relatively stable both within and between categories. The results indicate that differences in discrimination between consonants and vowels are primarily due to the differential availability of auditory short-term memory for the acoustic cues distinguishing these two classes of speech sounds. The findings provide evidence for distinct auditory and phonetic memory codes in speech perception.

Abstract: 1) Oster’s idea was to use the perception of binaural beats as a diagnostic tool because some people are unable to perceive and respond to them. Oster never mentions brainwaves or entrainment as a function of binaural beats. This is interesting since nearly every company advertising binaural beats claims Oster invented binaural beat brainwave entrainment. 2) People with certain neurological conditions, or at certain times of the month (women), vary in their ability to perceive and respond to binaural beats. There is also a gender difference in the ability to process the beats. 3) Binaural beats only form if the two tones are separated by less than 26 hz, 30 at most. This maximum declines as the carrier moves away from 440 hz. Also, binaural beats wane completely past a carrier 1000 hz. 4) According to Oster, the depth of binaural beats is very small (3db). In a test comparison, monaural beats produced a much larger neural response. This seems to follow in line with the research done by David Seiver (Comptronic devices), Transparent Corp and others in regards to monaural and isochronic tones producing stronger entrainment.

Abstract: A failure in auditory processing is often cited as a major or contributing cause of language and learning disorders in children and adults, including defective articulation, aphasia, dyslexia, and ...

Abstract: A psychophysical study of the perception of "sound" induced by illumination with pulse-modulated, ultrahigh-frequency electromagnetic energy indicated that perception was primarily dependent upon peak power and secondarily dependent upon pulse width. The average power did not significantly affect perception. Perceived characteristics of pitch and timbre appeared to be functions of modulation.

Abstract: A series of experiments, using a selective adaptation procedure, investigated some of the properties of the linguistic feature detectors that mediate the perception of the voiced and voiceless stop consonants. The first experiment showed that these detectors are centrally rather than peripherally located, in that monotic presentation of the adapting stimulus and test stimuli to different ears resulted in large and reliable shifts in the locus of the phonetic boundary. The second experiment revealed that the detectors are part of the specialized speech processor, inasmuch as adaptation of a voicing detector (as measured by a shift in the phonetic boundary) occurred only when the voicing information was presented in a speech context. In the third experiment, the detector mediating perception of the voiced stops was shown to be more resistant to adaptation than the detector mediating perception of the voiceless stops.

Abstract: The effects of shifting attention toward or away from visual or auditory stimuli of varying intensities were studied using average evoked responses (AERs) in 24 normal human volunteers. Ss were asked to attend to visual or auditory stimuli of four intensities (randomly presented) or to ignore the lights and tones and do mental arithmetic. For visual stimuli, attentional effects were largest at low intensities whereas for auditory stimuli equal effects were shown across intensities. Similar individual rates of increase of AER amplitude with increasing intensity were observed for both visual and auditory stimuli when attentional conditions were controlled. These results suggest that some general intensity processing response is reflected in the AER and that it is important to control attention in AER experiments.

Abstract: POMERLEAU-MALCUIT, ANDREE, and CLIFTON, RACHEL K. Neonatal Heart-Rate Response to Tactile, Auditory, and Vestibular Stimulation in Different States. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1973, 44, 485-496. Newborn cardiac activity was analyzed in the context of the orienting response. Stimuli in 3 modalities were presented to Ss in different states: before and after a feeding, while sleeping and awake. Each S received 3 trials of tactile, vestibular, and auditory stimulation. Statistical analyses were performed on heart rate (HR) during each of the 10 seconds of stimulation. In sleeping Ss, the HR response was primarily accelerative to tactile and vestibular stimulation but unreliable to auditory stimulation. For the awake Ss, the feeding variable affected Ss' responsivity to auditory and vestibular stimuli. Before feeding, awake Ss decelerated to both types of stimuli. After feeding, there was no reliable response to any stimulus. A decelerative response was also found to vestibular stimulation in sleeping babies tested before feeding, but only when this type of stimulus was presented first in the sequence. In general, newborns tended to respond with less variability when tested before feeding. The newborn's cardiac response to stimuli in different modalities is affected by arousal state and feeding condition.

Abstract: The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities was administered to 166 second graders who were classified as auditory or visual learners on the basis of discrepancies in individual test profiles. Four controlled instructional procedures were presented in classroom settings. Two procedures were primarily auditory, and two primarily visual. The 5 percent of the subjects showing greatest preference for visual tests performed equally well on visual and auditory learning tasks. Auditory learners performed equally well on auditory and visual tasks.

Abstract: This research examined whether attention and processing capacity limitations affect the recognition of single tones. The 5s identified either one or both dimensions (loudness and quality) of a short test tone. Processing time was controlled by following the test tone with a masking tone after a variable silent interval. Performance improved with increases in the silent intertone interval, but was not affected by whether 5s identified one or both tone dimensions. These results indicated no capacity limitations or selective attention during the recognition of these dimensions. The pattern of the concurrent responses supports these conclusions by indicating that the dimensions were processed independently and in parallel.

Abstract: Billingberg & Jomson (1965) constructed the Intonation test (to be described under ‘Methods’) in order to study the ability of schizophrenic patients to interpret communication containing emotional meaning. It was found that the combined scores of schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic subjects taking this test tended to form a bimodal distribution. A similar result was obtained in another auditory test which assessed the ability to interpret sound effects. (In a visual test on figureground perception, there was no significant difference between the schizophrenic and the nonpsychotic patients, and in another visual test on the ability to identify pictures as friendly or threatening, the difference between schizophrenic and nonschizophrenics was only slight). Since our interest was in the ability of the schizophrenic patients to interpret communication containing emotional meaning, it was decided to perform a second study where any deficiency in perceiving pure tones could be isolated. An analysis might then reveal the relationship between psychotic symptoms and difficulties in the Intonation test.

Abstract: Discrimination ability of 15 aphasic, 10 normal, and 10 brain-damaged nonaphasic adults was assessed using a specially constructed discrimination test designed to assess ability to discriminate imp...

Abstract: Various measures of the perception and of the production of voicing contrasts in initial stop consonants were intercorrelated to investigate a possible relationship between articulation and perception. The results showed inter-dependencies of factors within perception but no significant correlations between perception and production measures.

Abstract: Auditory maps, recorded on cassette tapes, can be used to provide a visually handicapped person who is fully trained in the use of long-cane or dog-guide mobility skills with a verbal description t...

Abstract: ronment for considerable portions of the day Average classroom noise levels have not been adequately de termined relative to occupied and empty room conditions, nor have standards been determined for construction relative to the acoustic environment of classrooms (Knudsen and Harris, 1950; Kingsbury and Taylor, 1967; Hammon, 1970) In one study Kingsbury and Strumpf (1969) advocate a 66 dB noise level as the upper limit to maintain ade quate speech intelligibility (auditory discrimination) Sanders (1965) demonstrated classroom noise levels in relation to grade level and the hearing-impaired In this study kin dergarten and primary grade classes produced the highest noise levels Auditory discrimination as a performance skill has been studied most intensely by reading specialists and speech and hearing specialists (Harrington and Durrell, 1955; Dykstra, 1966; Wepman, 1960; Winitz, 1969) Test scores are pertinent to these specialists since reading-defective children show a 20-50 percent incidence range of poor auditory discrimination perfor mance (Durrell, 1956) Similarly, 50-80 percent of speech defective children score poorly on auditory