Better discrimination of small changes in commonly encountered than in less commonly encountered auditory stimuli

Author(s): Callaway, N. L.

Journal/Book: J Exp Psychol Hum Percep Perf. 1999; 25: 750 First St NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242, USA. Amer Psychological Assoc. 543-560.

Abstract: Results from 3 auditory tasks revealed that small changes made in stimuli commonly encountered in everyday life are more easily discriminated than are the same changes made in stimuli not as commonly encountered. The tasks required discrimination of a frequency difference in 1 tone of 6-tone chords or nonchords, discrimination of a duration difference in 1 note of common tunes or nontunes, and discrimination of the deletion of a band of frequencies from speech sounds prayed forward or backward. Different crews of college-aged listeners served in the different tasks. Lf future research shows this difference in discriminability to be a general property of commonly encountered stimuli-attributable to a difference in the way they are processed in the nervous system-then discrimination tests of this sort could become useful for assessing whether stimuli have made the transition from one form of processing to the other.

Note: Article McFadden D, Univ Texas, Dept Psychol, Mezes Hall 330, Austin,TX 78712 USA

Keyword(s): PERCEPTUAL MAGNET; SPEECH SOUNDS; INFORMATION; RESTORATION; FREQUENCY; CATEGORIZATION; COMBINATION; RECOGNITION; SENSITIVITY; SUPERIORITY

Zurück | Weiter