A Detection-Theoretic Analysis of Auditory Streaming and Its Relation to Auditory Masking.
An-Chieh Chang, Robert Lutfi, Jungmee Lee and 1 others
PMID 27641681WHAT IT FOUND
In normal-hearing listeners, hearing tone sequences as separate streams and detecting small level changes both depended on how far apart the tones were and how much their frequencies varied randomly.
The same pattern appeared in streaming and masking tasks.
Key findings
01Listeners reported greater confidence hearing separate streams when the mean frequency difference between tone sequences was larger and less confidence when random frequency variability was larger.
02Listeners reported greater confidence detecting alternating B-tone level when the mean frequency difference was larger and less confidence when random frequency variability was larger.
03A single fitted function of Δ/σ described both streaming and masking confidence ratings and accounted for 96% of total variance.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The averaged results used seven listeners, because two of the nine recruited reported 100% confidence in every condition. All listeners had normal pure-tone hearing thresholds, so the findings do not speak to patients with hearing loss. The stimuli were artificial tone sequences, not speech or everyday sounds, so the results may not translate directly to listening in real environments. Confidence ratings were not separated from response bias because there were no no-signal trials, so the ratings combined what listeners heard and what they chose to report. The detection-theoretic analysis is described as a framework for generating expectations, not a specific model of listener performance.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence about patients with hearing loss or about listening in noisy surroundings. The study used artificial tone sequences and nine normal-hearing listeners, not a clinical population or a therapy outcome.