The role of immediate prior experience in auditory stream segregation

人类和非人类动物都依赖一套能力，使它们能够将感兴趣的声音与嘈杂的背景声音分开，例如，当我们在拥挤、嘈杂的公交车上听某人说话时。这些能力统称为“听觉场景分析”，几十年来一直是实验室研究的重点。然而，最近的研究指出，需要更多的实证和理论工作来解释声音分离过程中发生的各种现象。内华达大学拉斯维加斯分校的乔尔·斯奈德专注于语境效应，因为它们有望显著提高我们对解释听觉场景分析所需的机制和处理水平的理论理解。需要解决的关键问题包括1)声音模式的哪些特征影响语境效应？2)感觉或决策水平的加工是否最适合解释语境效应？3)注意力或意识是否影响语境效应？该项目的发现可能具有技术和健康应用，如助听器、语音和音乐识别设备的假体设计，以及改善正常听力、听力障碍、发育障碍和精神分裂症中出现的听力障碍。

Human and non-human animals alike rely on a set of abilities that allow them to segregate sounds of interest from noisy background sounds, for example, when we listen to someone talking on a crowded, noisy bus. These abilities, collectively called 'auditory scene analysis,' have been the focus of several decades of laboratory research. However, recent research has pointed out the need for more empirical and theoretical work to explain the diversity of phenomena that occurs during sound segregation. Joel Snyder from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, focuses on context effects because they show promise for significantly advancing our theoretical understanding of the mechanisms and levels of processing necessary to explain auditory scene analysis. Key issues to be addressed include 1) What features of sound patterns influence context effects? 2) Are sensory or decision levels of processing best suited to explain context effects? 3) Do attention or awareness influence context effects?The findings from this project may have technical and health applications such as prosthetic design of hearing aids, speech and music recognition devices, and amelioration of auditory impairments that occur in normal hearing, hearing impairments, developmental disorders, and schizophrenia.