Abstract: Saccadic eye movements evoked by the presentation of visual and auditory targets were examined and compared. Differences were found either in the pattern of the saccadic response and in the characteristics of single saccades of the same amplitude. The longer latency and the higher percentage of multiple saccade responses in the auditory case were attributed to a more complex central processing, whereas the longer duration and the lower peak velocity of the saccades to auditory targets were attributed to reduced performances of the execution mechanism in the absence of vision.

Abstract: This study examined the time course of attentional tuning of the N1 and P3 components of the auditory evoked potential. Human subjects were presented with two concurrent sequences of pure tone stimuli, one sequence delivered to each ear. They were instructed to listen to the tones in one ear and count randomly-embedded target stimuli, identified by pitch, while ignoring concurrent and physically equivalent stimuli in the other ear. Attention was then allocated to other ear-pitch combinations in subsequent runs. The rate of stimulation was rapid, an average of three stimuli per second per channel, to maximize N1 differences between channels. Evoked potentials were sampled at various times during each experimental run, to determine the time course of amplitude change in each auditory channel, as the subject tuned his neural response to the selected stimuli.

Abstract: Measures of the accuracy of locomotion control were taken with blind and blindfolded sighted subjects using the natural auditory obstacle sense to locate a travel path. These measures were compared with the accuracy of visual guidance. While the blind show a greater skill than blindfolded sighted subjects in using auditory cues for guidance, auditory guidance is notably inferior to visual guidance and deteriorates markedly when smaller targets are used to define the travel path. The natural obstacle sense thus appears to give only a rudimentary perception of the presence of objects and does not provide sufficient spatial information to allow accurate locomotion control.

Abstract: Cutting and Rosner (Perception & Psychophysics, 1974,16, 564–570) reported that sawtooth wavetrains were perceived categorically when an array was varied in linear rise time increments. That is, rapid rise time stimuli were identified as plucked strings and slower rise time stimuli as bowed strings, and pluck-bow comparisons were relatively easy to discriminate but pluck-pluck and bow-bow comparisons were not. Such results indicate the general equivalence of identification and discrimination tasks. Rosen and Howell (Perception & Psychophysics, 1981,30, 156–168), however, report that categorical perception does not occur for these sounds for two reasons. First, the original stimuli did not have the rise times reported by Cutting and Rosner. Second, the perception of these stimuli more closely follows a prediction from a Weber fraction. Acknowledging the first fact to be true, in part due to difficulties in digital-to-analog conversion, I set out to replicate and extend the results of Rosen and Howell. In Experiment 1, I found that stimuli with equal linear increments of rise time are not perceived categorically; but they are not perceived to follow closely a logarithmic relation either. In Experiment 2, I found that stimuli with equal logarithmic increments of rise time were generally perceived categorically. Experiment 3 replicated the results of both experiments. Thus, plucked and bowed music-like sounds can sometimes be found to be perceived in a categorical manner. However, categorical perception is not found with stimuli generated in the manner of Cutting and Rosner (1974) or Rosen and Howell (1981), and the phenomenon generally seems subject to rather stringent, if not curious, stimulus conditions. Moreover, and more deeply, categorical perception seems hardly the bedrock phenomenon it once appeared to be, whether in speech or in any other domain.

Abstract: Paired comparison perception and preference judgments of hearing aid processed music were examined under conditions of extended and reduced high and low-frequency ranges. The performance of 20 subjects with mild to moderate hearing impairment was compared with an equal number of normal hearing controls. Subjects with normal hearing indicated perception of and preference for extended ranges for both high and low frequencies. However the perception and preference judgments of hearing-impaired subjects were essentially random for the high-frequency ranges; but accurate perception and preference was found for extended low-frequency adjustments. Implications for hearing aid design and use are discussed.

Abstract: These studies compared the spatial (Experiment 1) and temporal (Experiment 2) contextual information in memories of perceived pictures with that available in memories of imagined pictures. As expected, contextual information was generally superior for memories derived from perception.

Abstract: The structure of the lower auditory pathway and certain responses to sounds were studied in the European mole (Talpa europaea). While the animal possesses a structurally normal cochlear nuclear complex and auditory midbrain, the medial superior olive, although small, is prominent and the lateral superior olive is lacking. This characteristic has been observed in other species with essentially low frequency hearing. Behavioural and electrophysiological responses to sound were evoked between 0.1 and 15 kHz, and moles were apparently at least sensitive to tones of 5-8 kHz as they were to low tones. In general, evidence is presented for the mole having essentially normal mammalian auditory characteristics.

Abstract: Two series of speech identification tests were conducted in different age groups, the first test consisting of 11 synthetic speech stimuli varying in vowel length, the second test being composed of 30 natural speech stimuli varying in length of the initial consonant. Categorical perception of different phonemes was demonstrated in both experiments in all age groups. Persons more than 65 years of age showed significantly lower response percentages in both tests than did younger subjects. In the test where natural speech stimuli were used, boundaries of phoneme-category shift were dislocated in the older when compared with results of the younger subjects. Furthermore, speech discrimination was poorer in monaural than in binaural listening condition in the groups of more than 65-year-old persons with signs of age-induced sensorineural hearing loss: in this age group women showed clearly better results than men. These differences could not be demonstrated in the younger age groups.

Abstract: Shiffrin and Schneider proposed a general theory of attention that postulates the existence of automatic and controlled search processes. They concluded that automatic processes develop when the mapping between stimuli and responses is consistent and controlled processing occurs when the mapping is varied. The effects of consistent and varied mapping were examined in an auditory target detection task. Subjects listened for one or three target letters embedded in a stream of dichotic letter pairs. Subjects responded faster and made fewer errors under the consistent mapping (CM) condition than under the varied mapping (VM) condition, and the effect of memory set size decreased over practice in the CM condition but not the VM condition. The results are discussed in terms of automatic and controlled processes involved in recognition of target stimuli. A review of research on auditory target detection suggests that the development of automatic processes may account for some apparent discrepancies in the literature.

Abstract: Man's spatial perception was investigated on the basis of acoustic input in the extrapersonal frame of reference. Sounds from a two-dimensional loudspeaker array outlined sequentially the contours of various digits. The underlying mechanisms involved in this auditory-spatial task were analyzed according to alterations in the vertical and horizontal spread of the patterns. The results demonstrated that two-dimensional sound patterns are identified mainly but not only on the basis of their horizontal spread. Differences between visual and auditory pattern perception are discussed in the context of supramodal spatial functions, and the present findings are linked to their neuropsychological application.

Abstract: The effects of the open-space classroom and the traditional, self-contained classroom on the auditory selective attending skills of elementary school children were studied. Thirty-eight fourth-grad...

Abstract: This exploratory study examined the usefulness of averaging electrodermal potential responses for research on subliminal auditory perception. Eighteen female subjects were exposed to three kinds (emotional, neutral and 1000 Hz tone) of auditory stimulation which were repeated six times at three intensities (detection threshold, 10 dB under this threshold and 10 dB above identification threshold). Analysis of electrodermal potential responses showed that the number of responses was related to the emotionality of subliminal stimuli presented at detection threshold but not at 10 dB under it. The data interpretation proposed refers to perceptual defence theory. This study indicates that electrodermal response count constitutes a useful measure for subliminal auditory perception research, but averaging those responses was not shown to bring additional information.

Abstract: A-49-year-old right-handed female was reported. She showed pure word deafness and auditory agnosia because of bilateral temporo-parietal lesions. The left lesion resulted from angiospasm of the left anterior and middle cerebral arteries after subarachnoid hemorrhage due to a ruptured aneurysm of the left carotid artery, and the right one resulted from subcortical hematoma after the V-P shunt operation. CT scan revealed the abnormal low density area on the bilateral temporo-parietal regions seven months after onset. Neurophychological findings were as follows: there were no aphasic symptoms such as paraphasia, word finding difficulties, or disturbances of spontaneous writing, reading and calculation. But her auditory comprehension was severely disturbed, and she could neither repeat words after the tester nor write from dictation. She also could not recognize meaningful sounds and music in spite of normal hearing sensitivity for pure tone, BSR and AER. We discussed the neuropsychological mechanisms of auditory recognition, and assumed that each hemisphere might process both verbal and non-verbal auditory stimuli in the secondary auditory area. The auditory input may be recognized at the left association area, the final level of this mechanism. Pure word deafness and auditory agnosia of this case might be caused by the disruption of the right secondary auditory area, the pathway between the left primary auditory area and the left secondary auditory area, and between the left and right secondary auditory areas.

Abstract: A comparison was made between listeners' perceptions of low frequency (LF) acoustic and electric stimuli. One normal-hearing S participated, and 3 profoundly deaf pts with intracochlear electrode systems. All Ss described their auditory perceptions to pulsatile and sinusoidal stimuli from 5 to 60 c/s. LF acoustic and electric stimuli produced similar auditory perceptions; no tactual component was found to electrical stimuli, although tactual components have been reported for LF acoustic stimuli; and at 5 c/s perceptual differences were noted between pulsed and sinusoidal stimuli, differences believed to be related to the degree of neural synchrony elicited by the two types of stimulus. This study provides direct support for the theory that in normal listeners LF auditory perception is attributable to a neural volley mechanism.

Abstract: The major purpose of this study is to determine whether children assigned to classes for severe oral language handicaps in California by a multidisciplinary diagnostic team exhibit a characteristic...

Abstract: 12 children who recently had satisfactorily completed therapy for 4+ phonemes, and normal controls, were given tasks of auditory perception consisting of (a) repeating 5-word recorded sentences (0, 1st- and 2nd-order approximations) at 0 and at 60% time compression, and (b) diotic and dichotic presentations at 40 db SL of the WIPI test split into 2 bandwidths (500-580 and 1950-2080 c/s). Results showed that the performance of the experimental Ss was significantly poorer than that of age-matched controls on time-compressed speech, but not on the binaural fusion task. The greatest diagnostic potential for time-compressed speech was at 60% compression. Results contrasted with previous data showing significantly poorer performance of severely misarticulating children on a binaural summation task (Flowers and Costello, J. Aud. Res., 1963, 3, 133-140). There is a need to monitor the auditory perceptual abilities of formerly misarticulating children with a battery of more than a single test.

Abstract: Previous research has shown that the voice‐onset time dimension can be modeled using nonspeech stimuli. Labeling data from these experiments are in close agreement with the VOT crossover point for labial stops. The VOT boundary, however, varies with place of articulation; this effect appears to be attributable to differences in the duration of the first‐format transition. Results from the present study demonstrate that this effect can also be found with stimuli consisting of a midfrequency sine wave (analogous to F2) and a low‐frequency sine wave (analogous to F1). The two frequency components were separated in relative onset time by 0 to 50 ms in 10‐ms steps and were synthesized with frequency sweeps similar to formant transitions found in speech. Labeling results showed that, like synthetic speech, the boundary location for relative onset time is influenced by the duration of the lower frequency tone sweep. These findings, and the results of discrimination tests with these stimuli, suggest an auditory r...

Abstract: Three categories of vocal music—children's songs, popular, and classic—were analyzed to study repetition of tones. It appeared that the repetition of tones is a function of recency. Results can be explained by an hypothesis of availability.

Abstract: Auditory Pattern Perception In Human Infants Hay 1982 Barbara A. Morrongiello , Douglass College-Rutgers University U.S., University of Massachusetts, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Directed by: Professor Rachel K. Clifton Fifty 6and 12month-olds were equally assigned to five conditions: two conditions examined frequency discriminations involving the addition of a novel, and the deletion of a familiar, frequency tone; two examined tonal pattern discrimination, infants' abilities to detect a change in the sequence of component tones; and one examined temporal pattern discrimination, infants' abilities to detect a change in temporal grouping of the elements comprising a pattern. Each Frequency and Tonal pattern condition contained discrimination contrasts to examine memory influences on infants' discrimination performance. A Go/No-Go conditioned head-turning paradigm was used, in which successive presentations of an auditory stimulus (S-) comprised a 'background' and head turns toward a change stimulus (S+), which periodically replaced S-, were visually reinforced. For the Frequency and Tonal pattern discrimination conditions, pure tones of 1100 and 1900 Hz were used to construct 9-tone patterns temporally organized into three groupings each of three tones. For the Temporal pattern condition, white-noise bursts were used instead of tones. Across all conditions, patterns were H.2