A New Approach to Sound Source Identification

描述（由申请人提供）：在日常听力中，我们非常依赖于我们从声音中识别简单物体和事件的能力。然而，尽管它很重要，人们对这种能力知之甚少。一种新的心理物理学方法有望改变这种状况。摄动分析最近在视觉领域取得了成功，作为揭示目标识别背后的决策过程的一种手段。本文将其应用于基本声源及其属性的听觉识别。应用分三个阶段进行：首先，根据理论声学的运动方程合成简单谐振源的声音。其次，听者的决策策略由与听者判断相关的回归权重决定，这些权重与运动方程所规定的声学参数的合法扰动有关。第三，通过将获得的权重和残差与最大似然观察者的权重和残差进行比较来确定处理中的限制，最大似然观察者的决策基于被判断的源属性唯一的声学信息。该方法代表了过去的方法的重大进步，这些方法是从性能准确性或从在非法反对中放置声学线索的效果来推断决策策略。具体目标是：(1)精确地确定听众如何使用多个声学信息源来识别基本声源及其属性；(2)利用训练反馈和指导分离限制识别的因素；(3)测试预测结果的一般理论框架，其中不太准确但感知上更强大的声学线索为识别提供了可行的基础。通过提高我们对声源识别的正常过程的理解，这些结果可能会成为技术发展和康复策略的关键，这些技术和策略可以更有效地处理听力功能障碍对日常听力的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We rely critically on our ability to identify simple objects and events from sound to function normally in everyday listening. Yet, despite its importance, little is known regarding this ability. A new psychophysical method promises to change this situation. Perturbation analysis has enjoyed recent success in vision as a means of revealing decision processes underlying object identification. Here it is applied to the auditory identification of elementary sound sources and their attributes. The application proceeds in three stages: First, the sounds of simple resonant sources are synthesized according to their equations of motion from theoretical acoustics. Second, listener decision strategy is determined from regression weights relating listener judgments to lawful perturbations in acoustic parameters as dictated by the equations for motion. Third, limits in processing are identified by comparing the obtained weights and residuals to those of a maximum-likelihood observer that bases decisions on acoustic information unique to the source attribute(s) being judged. The approach represents a significant advance over past methods that infer decision strategy from performance accuracy or from the effect of placing acoustic cues in unlawful opposition. Specific aims are: (1) to determine precisely how listeners use multiple sources of acoustic information to identify rudimentary sound sources and their attributes, (2) to isolate the factors that limit identification using training feedback and instruction, and (3) to test a general theoretical framework for predicting results in which less accurate though perceptually more robust acoustic cues offer a viable basis for identification. By advancing our understanding of the normal processes underlying sound source identification the results may prove key in the development of technologies and rehabilitative strategies that deal more effectively with the impact of dysfunctional hearing on everyday listening.