Abstract: Three experiments studied the perception of tone sequences having various degrees of musical structure. Ratings of perceived structure and ease of recognition in transposition were both influenced by harmonic progression (as defined by music theory), the contour (directional changes in pitch), and the excursion or repetition pattern within the sequence. The relation between the original and transposed sequence also affected ease of recognition in accordance with the number of tones shared between the two sequences. The results are described in terms of the abstraction and analysis of levels of pitch relations, an analysis conducted even by musically untrained listeners. The conceptual framework emphasizes the application of musical rules as an illustration of rules governing auditory sequences in general.

Abstract: The perceived duration of a short tone (1,000 or 1,500 msec) was longer than that of a separately presented light of equal length. Thus, when light and tone were presented simultaneously, there was a conflict in perceived duration. In that case, the perceived duration of an interval filled with both light and tone was close to that of an interval filled with tone alone. A silent gap in otherwise continuous tone was perceived as longer than a gap in otherwise continuous light, and the perceived duration of a gap occurring simultaneously in both light and tone was close to that of a gap in tone alone. Thus, auditory dominance occurred under the preceding conditions-that is, auditory-visual conflicts in perceived duration, whether occurring between filled intervals or gaps, were resolved in favor of the auditory modality. Visual dominance occurred only under one condition, in which the intensity of tone was reduced, and in which the perceived duration of a 500-msec light was longer than that of a 500-msec tone. The finding of auditory dominance in the perception of time runs counter to the results of studies of sensory conflicts in spatial perception, where vision typically dominates audition and touch.

Abstract: Two groups of children were compared to determine the effects of early middle ear pathology on the development of auditory perceptual skills and academic achievement. The conductive loss (CL) group...

Abstract: 11 infants with Down's syndrome (MA 9.2 months, CA 12.7 months) and 10 of 11 nonhandicapped infants (MA 9.6 months, CA 9.3 months) demonstrated that they could operate an automated device which enabled them to choose to listen to 1 of a pair of auditory signals. All subjects showed preferential responding. Both groups of infants showed a significant preference for nursery rhymes sung by a female voice rather than played on musical instruments. The infants with Down's syndrome had much longer response durations for the more complex auditory stimuli. The apparatus provides a useful technique for studying language development in both normal and abnormal populations.

Abstract: A review of research examining the relationship of auditory perceptual skills to reading ability is presented. The techniques of meta-analysis were used to statistically integrate the findings from 106 studies. A total of 723 correlation coefficients were collected and aggregated across five auditory perceptual skills, five reading achievement variables, three grade levels, and three subject characteristics. In addition, a correlation matrix was constructed from the 723 coefficients and used as the basis for a factor analysis, cannonical correlation analysis, and step-wise multiple regression analyses describing the interrelationships among auditory perception, intelligence, and reading achievement. The present findings indicate that auditory perception is an important correlate of reading ability with the proportion of explained variance in reading achievement depending on the combination of auditory and reading variables considered. It was concluded that auditory perceptual skills should be considered i...

Abstract: Previous reports of intermodal apparent motion claim that the various senses contribute to or are under the guidance of a single synthesizing or organizing system, a common sense, and that under proper circumstances the separate heteromodal stimuli may be combined into a novel perceptual object Our first experiment suggests that the term intermodal apparent motion has been misapplied in the past to one of the many idiosyncratic interpretations to which relatively meaningless patterns of heteromodal stimulation lend themselves In our second experiment, we found that a properly timed visual stimulus can facilitate the perception of auditory apparent motion without its peculiarly auditory qualities of the moving percept We find no evidence for a common or suprasensory organizing principle that integrates the separate visual and auditory stimuli

Abstract: In a binaural selective-listening task, subjects' performance was strongly influenced by the position of their eyes, Subjects remembered fewest words from the relevant message and made the most intrusion errors when looking in the direction of the irrelevant input. Looking away from the relevant message but in a direction from which no auditory input originated was not significantly different from looking toward the relevant input. As the speakers were arrayed along a vertical line, the results cannot be interpreted as reflecting activation of the cerebral hemispheres (unlike earlier related work). The results are discussed in terms of the control of auditory attention.

Abstract: • A battery of tests using speech materials was developed to evaluate the auditory perception skills of five subjects with profound postlingual hearing loss. Two of the subjects wore hearing aids, and three subjects used cochlear implants. Responses of the two subjects with hearing aids were consistently superior to those of the subjects with implants, and one of the three subjects with implants consistently performed better than the other two. The subjects with implants displayed wide variations in response, indicating the necessity of evaluating each implant prosthesis as it was used by a given subject. In addition to tests of auditory speech perception, a measure of lipreading ability with amplification provided useful information. ( Arch Otolaryngol 1981;107:160-163)

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the comprehension abilities of children with impaired expressive language and to obtain information on the interrelationships among tests of comprehensi...

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of various cut-off frequencies on low-pass filtered speech discrimination test results obtained from children. Two groups of children, one presumed to have normal auditory perception and the other with auditory learning disabilities, were tested. Phonetically Balanced Kindergarten word list words were low-pass filtered at 1000 Hz, 750 Hz, and 500 Hz. The results indicate a clear separation of groups for the 1000 Hz filtered condition only. The implications of these preliminary test findings are discussed.

Abstract: Investigations of possible mechanisms underlying hallucinations have indicated that abnormal excitation of brain tissue and abnormal regulation of cognitive activity may contribute to hallucinations. The cognitive control deficits in auditory hallucinations are in some ways similar to those in persons with damage to the frontal lobes of the brain. An examination of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery performance of 10 psychiatric patients with auditory hallucinations, 10 patients with visual hallucinations and 20 patients with no hallucinations showed evidence of general cognitive impairment with a left frontal focus in the auditory group and no evidence of neuropsychological impairment in the visual group. Both self-awareness and control of internal speech involve left frontal mediation and the possible contribution of deficiencies in these functions to the appearance of auditory hallucinations is discussed.

Abstract: The status of remedial methods in the treatment of developmental dyslexia remains uncertain (Myers & Hammill, 1976) . Nevertheless, individual practitioners feel that, in some cases, the VAKT (visual-acoustic-kinesthetic-tactile) method is helpful. Below, a suggestion will be offered as to why the VAKT method works when it does work. In reading and writing, both the visual and auditory domains are essential in encoding and decoding. In general, both vision and audition involve activity in both hemispheres. In vision, scanning movements of the eyes ensure that fixated stimuli activate receptors which project to both the ipsiand contralateral hemispheres, and in audition the inherent cross-connections at various levels of the system ensure that auditory stimuli reach both hemispheres. There is some consensus that in spite of this provision for bilateral representation of visual and auditory information, there is a functional asymmetry in the way in which visual and auditory information during the reading and writing process is processed. In fact, one of the more enduring structural models for developmental dyslexia suggests that insufficiently developed lateral specialization of function may k a factor contributing to problems of some dyslexics. Whi le the more basic versions of this model have had scant support, more complex interpretations continue to hold some promise (Spreen, 1978). In the VAKT method, a n attempt is made to have conjoint activiry in all four sensory channels (visual, acoustic, kinesthetic, tactile) while reading and writing. In contrast to stimuli in the visual and auditory domain, both kinesthetic and tactile stimuli of the hand are confined to the contralateral hemisphere: there is no mechanism equivalent to the ones available to visual and auditory stimuli which would lead to immediate bilateral representation. Moreover, there is little evidence to suggest that there are any direct uanscallosal connections between the corresponding prlrnary sensory projection areas of the two hands (Jones & Powell, 1973) . This leads to a simple hypothesis: when using kinesthetic and tactile components in conjunction with visual and auditory processes, the former might force a clear lateralization of the latter during the process of reading and writing. This, in turn, leads to the prediction that VAKT method may be of use in those cases where dyslexic disturbances arise through unclearly defined functional lateralization of the hemispheres for processes involved in reading and writing. The hypothesis lends itself to empirical test.

Abstract: Susan B Neuman The relationship between auditory skills and reading achievement has been investigated repeatedly with a number of distinct methodological strategies One conclusion has been consistently reported: the child who is unable to hear and distinguish sounds will most likely have diffi culty in learning to read (Bond, 1935; Chali, Roswell, and Blumenthal, 1963; de Hirsch, Jansky, and Lang ford, 1966; Durrell and Murphy, 1953; Harrington and Durrell, 1955) Perhaps as a result of this research, a number of studies attempted to teach auditory skills as a method of improving reading instruction (Mc Ninch and Richmond, 1972; Mayo, 1971; Rosner, 1974; Witkin, 1973) Special programs were developed which included such auditory pro cesses as attention, closure, blending, and memory Overall, however, no definitive conclusions emerged from these stud ies The major questions still re mained: can auditory skills be taught, and if they can, do they produce gains in reading achievement? Ac cordingly, in 1978, a project was designed with the goal of answering those two questions This study used an auditory per ceptual training program developed by the investigator and the hierarchy of auditory perceptual skills pro posed by Flower (1968, p 22) To measure each perceptual skill, a subtest from an available standard ized instrument was selected and