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R E Pastore

Publications and source records attributed to R E Pastore.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Musical duplex perception: perception of figurally good chords with subliminal distinguishing tones.

In a variant of duplex perception with speech, phoneme perception is maintained when distinguishing components are presented below intensities required for separate detection, forming the basis for the claim that a phonetic module takes precedence over nonspeech processing. This finding is replicated with music chords (C major and minor) created by mixing a piano fifth with a sinusoidal distinguishing tone (E or E flat). Individual threshold intensities for detecting E or E flat in the context of the fixed piano tones are established. Chord discrimination thresholds defined by distinguishing tone intensity were determined. Experiment 2 verified masked detection thresholds and subliminal chord identification for experienced musicians. Accurate chord perception was maintained at distinguishing tone intensities nearly 20 dB below the threshold for separate detection. Speech and music findings are argued to demonstrate general perceptual principles.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Perception of acoustic source characteristics: walking sounds.

The current study investigated the ability of subjects to perceive source characteristics (the gender of a human walker) of a naturally occurring auditory event (human walking). A number of acoustic properties were measured and subjected to statistical analyses in order to identify those properties that differentiate male and female walking footsteps. A principal component analysis on the statistical properties of the spectral energy distributions then identified two classes of information that were important in determining subject perception of the gender of a walker: (1) the spectral peak which integrates the information about the spectral central tendency of frequency and shape of the spectral peak; and (2) the contribution of high-frequency spectral components. A follow-up experiment then manipulated these spectral properties to verify their contributions in the perceptual classification of walker gender. Additionally, the effect of shoe on the gender judgement in walking sequences was assessed by having both male and female walkers wear male's shoes.

Acoustics↗
PubMed1990

Categorical perception of nonspeech chirps and bleats.

Mattingly, Liberman, Syrdal, and Halwes, (1971) claimed to demonstrate that subjects cannot classify nonspeech chirp and bleat continua, but that they can classify into three categories a syllable place continuum whose variation is physically identical to the nonspeech chirp and bleat continua. This finding for F2 transitions, as well as similar findings for F3 transitions, has been cited as one source of support for theories that different modes or modules underlie the perception of speech and nonspeech acoustic stimuli. However, this pattern of finding for speech and nonspeech continua may be the result of research methods rather than a true difference in subject ability. Using tonal stimuli based on the nonspeech stimuli of Mattingly et al., we found that subjects, with appropriate practice, could classify nonspeech chirp, short bleat, and bleat continua with boundaries equivalent to the syllable place continuum of Mattingly et al. With the possible exception of the higher frequency boundary for both our bleats and the Mattingly syllables, ABX discrimination peaks were clearly present and corresponded in location to the given labeling boundary.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Burying straw men in imaginary graves: a reply to Kewley-Port, Watson, and Foyle (1988).

Kewley-Port, Watson, and Foyle [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 83, 1133-1145 (1988)] describe a study that uses several different procedures to measure thresholds for stimuli whose components differ in temporal onset. Unfortunately, misunderstandings and misconceptions (shared with other recent publications) resulted in conclusions that are both unnecessary and unwarranted. The Kewley-Port et al. article is discussed in terms of often replicated published findings on temporal order thresholds, and current misconceptions of perceptual concepts and models.

Attention↗
PubMed1987

Relative effectiveness of three stimulus variables for locating a moving sound source.

A study is reported in which it is shown that observers can use at least three types of acoustic variables that indicate reliably when a moving sound source is passing: interaural temporal differences, the Doppler effect, and amplitude change. Each of these variables was presented in isolation and each was successful in indicating when a (stimulated) moving sound source passed an observer. These three variables were put into competition (with each indicating that closest passage occurred at a different time) in an effort to determine their relative importance. It was found that amplitude change dominated interaural temporal differences which, in turn, dominated the Doppler effect stimulus variable. The results are discussed in terms of two interpretations. First, it is possible that subjects based their judgements on the potential discriminability of each stimulus variable. However, because the stimuli used involved easily discriminable changes, subjects may instead have based their judgements on the independence of a stimulus variable from different environmental situation conditions. The dominance ordering obtained supports the second interpretation.

Attention↗
PubMed1978

Critical-band effects in two-channel auditory signal detection.

Two-channel auditory signal detection was investigated with 50-msec sinusoidal signals masked by binaurally uncorrelated noise. In the two-channel tasks, the signals in each earphone channel were presented with an independent probability during the single observation interval and the observers were required to detect the inputs in a single earphone (selective-attention condition) or in both earphones (divided-attention condition). When the signals in each earphone were within the same critical band (the assumed singled processing unit in frequency domain), there was a decrement in detection performance in both the selective- and divided-attention (i.e. dichotic) conditions compared with the monaural condition. However, when signals were separated in frequency by several critical bands, a decrement in dichotic performance, as compared with monaural performance, occurred only in the divided-attention condition. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications regarding models of multichannel signal processing and the definition of input channels in terms of earphones.

Attention↗
PubMed1976

Processing interaction between two dimensions of nonphonetic auditory signals.

In 1974 Wood proposed a hybrid serial-parallel model to account for the within-stimulus interactions between the acoustic cue of "pitch" and the phonetic cure of "place." Three of the five experiments in this paper replicate the Wood findings with analogous, clearly nonphonetic stimuli and thus refute Wood's implicit assumption of the involvement of any uniquely phonetic processes as factors in his results. The experiments in this paper demonstrate that the patterns of interaction found by Wood are independent of the experience of the subjects, the order of cue presentation, and whether the cues are presented simultaneously or sequentially. We conclude that the given patterns of interaction are general characteristics of the auditory system. These characteristics probably are not related to backward or forward "recognition" masking but may be a function of several other general factors.

Acoustic Stimulation↗