The role of immediate prior experience in auditory stream segregation

人类和非人类动物都依赖于一套能力，使它们能够将感兴趣的声音从嘈杂的背景声音中分离出来，例如，当我们在拥挤嘈杂的公共汽车上听到某人说话时。这些能力统称为“听觉场景分析”，是几十年来实验室研究的重点。然而，最近的研究指出，需要更多的经验和理论工作来解释的多样性现象，发生在声音隔离。来自拉斯维加斯的内华达州大学的乔尔·斯奈德（Joel Snyder）专注于语境效应，因为它们显示出极大的希望，可以推进我们对解释听觉场景分析所必需的处理机制和水平的理论理解。需要解决的关键问题包括：1）声音模式的哪些特征会影响语境效应？2)感觉或决策水平的处理最适合解释上下文效应？3)注意力或意识会影响情境效应吗？该项目的研究结果可能具有技术和健康应用，例如助听器的修复设计，语音和音乐识别设备，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觉障碍。

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.