Biomedical subjects

W A Yost

Publications and source records attributed to W A Yost.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

The perceptual tone/noise ratio of merged iterated rippled noises.

Iterated rippled noise (IRN) is constructed by delaying a random noise by d ms, adding it back to the same noise, and repeating the process iteratively. When two IRNs with the same power but slightly different delays are added together, the perceptual tone/noise ratio of the "merged" IRN is markedly reduced with respect to that of either of the component IRNs. In this paper, the reduction in the perceptual tone/noise ratio is measured for IRNs in which one of the delays is always 16 ms and the other is either 16 +/- 0.1 ms or 16 +/- 1.1 ms. The component IRNs have the same number of iterations, and the number varies across conditions from 4 to 256. The perceptual tone/noise ratio is measured using a discrimination matching procedure developed for single IRNs; each merged IRN is compared with a range of "standard" stimuli having varying proportions of a complex tone and a broadband noise [Patterson et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 100, 3286-3294 (1996)]. For single IRNs, the function relating the signal-to-noise ratio of the matching standard to the number of iterations in the IRN was found to be essentially straight. This relationship was explained in terms of the height of the first peak in the autocorrelation of the stimulus wave, or by the first peak in the summary autocorrelogram produced by a time-domain auditory model. For the merged IRNs in the current experiment, the matching-point functions are found to have pronounced downward curvature, in addition to being well below the function for single IRNs. To account for the reduction in the perceptual tone/noise ratio of merged IRNs, the autocorrelation model was extended to include a simple rule for combining adjacent peaks in the autocorrelation function of the wave, and the autocorrelogram model was revised to improve the simulation of the "loss of phase locking" at higher frequencies in the autocorrelogram.

Auditory Perception↗

PubMed1999

The precedence effect.

In a reverberant environment, sounds reach the ears through several paths. Although the direct sound is followed by multiple reflections, which would be audible in isolation, the first-arriving wavefront dominates many aspects of perception. The "precedence effect" refers to a group of phenomena that are thought to be involved in resolving competition for perception and localization between a direct sound and a reflection. This article is divided into five major sections. First, it begins with a review of recent work on psychoacoustics, which divides the phenomena into measurements of fusion, localization dominance, and discrimination suppression. Second, buildup of precedence and breakdown of precedence are discussed. Third measurements in several animal species, developmental changes in humans, and animal studies are described. Fourth, recent physiological measurements that might be helpful in providing a fuller understanding of precedence effects are reviewed. Fifth, a number of psychophysical models are described which illustrate fundamentally different approaches and have distinct advantages and disadvantages. The purpose of this review is to provide a framework within which to describe the effects of precedence and to help in the integration of data from both psychophysical and physiological experiments. It is probably only through the combined efforts of these fields that a full theory of precedence will evolve and useful models will be developed.

Animals↗

PubMed1999

Loudness recalibration as a function of level.

Recent research on loudness has focused on contextual effects on loudness, both assimilation and recalibration. The current experiments examined loudness recalibration [Marks, J. Exp. Psychol. 20, 382-396 (1994)]. In the first experiment, an adaptive tracking procedure was used to measure loudness recalibration as a function of standard- and recalibration-tone level. The standard-tone frequencies were 500 and 2500 Hz and the levels were 80-, 70-, 60-, and 40-dB SPL, and threshold. Seventeen dB of loudness recalibration was obtained (combined over both frequencies) in the 60-dB SPL condition. This amount of loudness recalibration, while substantial, is still less than that obtained by Marks (22 dB), using the method of paired comparisons. The second experiment sought to duplicate Marks' earlier experiment [Marks, J. Exp. Psychol. 20, 382-396 (1994), experiment 2]. The results of this experiment (21 dB) were almost identical to those obtained by Marks. The results of experiment 1 indicate that loudness recalibration is maximum when the recalibration tone is moderately louder than the subsequent standard tones. Relatively little loudness recalibration is exhibited when the standard-tone level equals the recalibration-tone level. In addition, there is no loudness recalibration at threshold. The tracking procedure also identified that the onset of loudness recalibration is very rapid. The difference between the maximum loudness recalibration obtained at each frequency (11 dB at 500 Hz, 6 dB at 2500 Hz) suggests that loudness recalibration is dependent upon the frequency of the standard tone.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1998

The role of the envelope in processing iterated rippled noise.

Iterated rippled noise (IRN) is generated by a cascade of delay and add (the gain after the delay is 1.0) or delay and subtract (the gain is -1.0) operations. The delay and add/subtract operations impart a spectral ripple and a temporal regularity to the noise. The waveform fine structure is different in these two conditions, but the envelope can be extremely similar. Four experiments were used to determine conditions in which the processing of IRN stimuli might be mediated by the waveform fine structure or by the envelope. In experiments 1 and 3 listeners discriminated among three stimuli in a single-interval task: IRN stimuli generated with the delay and add operations (g = 1.0), IRN stimuli generated using the delay and subtract operations (g = -1.0), and a flat-spectrum noise stimulus. In experiment 2 the listeners were presented two IRN stimuli that differed in delay (4 vs 6 ms) and a flat-spectrum noise stimulus that was not an IRN stimulus. In experiments 1 and 2 both the envelope and waveform fine structure contained the spectral ripple and temporal regularity. In experiment 3 only the envelope had this spectral and temporal structure. In all experiments discrimination was determined as a function of high-pass filtering the stimuli, and listeners could discriminate between the two IRN stimuli up to frequency regions as high as 4000-6000 Hz. Listeners could discriminate the IRN stimuli from the flat-spectrum noise stimulus at even higher frequencies (as high as 8000 Hz), but these discriminations did not appear to depend on the pitch of the IRN stimuli. A control experiment (fourth experiment) suggests that IRN discriminations in high-frequency regions are probably not due entirely to low-frequency nonlinear distortion products. The results of the paper imply that pitch processing of IRN stimuli is based on the waveform fine structure.

Attention↗

PubMed1997

Discrimination of rippled-spectrum noise from flat-spectrum noise by chinchillas: evidence for a spectral dominance region.

Iterated rippled noise having infinite iterations is generated when a flat-spectrum wideband noise is delayed T ms and the delayed version is added to the undelayed noise through positive feedback. The resulting signal has a rippled spectrum, and the perceived pitch of this iterated rippled noise by human listeners corresponds to a frequency of 1/T. We have previously demonstrated that chinchillas can discriminate the rippled-spectrum noise from the flat-spectrum noise. In the present study, chinchillas discriminated a bandpass filtered rippled-spectrum noise from a bandpass flat-spectrum noise in a psychophysical task. The passbands were set to be one octave wide. Psychometric functions were obtained for 5 chinchillas and performance was measured as d'. The best behavioral performance was obtained when the center frequency of the bandpass filter generally corresponded to the 3rd 5th harmonic peak of the rippled noise (i.e., at 3/T to 5/T), but the precise location of the dominant region varied with the delay of the rippled noise such that the dominance region tended to shift to lower harmonics as 1/T increased. These results indicate that not all spectral regions are weighted equally in the discrimination task. The spectral dominance region found in chinchillas is similar to that described for human pitch perception.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1997

Pitch strength of iterated rippled noise when the pitch is ambiguous.

Two versions of a cascade of delay, gain following delay, and add circuits were used to generate iterated rippled noise (IRN) stimuli. IRN stimuli produce a repetition pitch whose pitch strength relative to the noise percept can be varied by changing the type of circuit, the attenuation, or the number of iterations in the circuit. The repetition pitch of IRN is different when the delayed noise is subtracted (gain < 0) rather than added (gain > 0) to the undelayed noise. In the case of subtraction, IRN pitch is often ambiguous having two or more pitches. Listeners were asked to use pitch strength to discriminate between various pairs of IRN stimuli generated with different gains, different network circuits, and different number of iterations. For most conditions the gain was less than one. The data were described by a description based on an exponential function of the largest peak of the autocorrelation function of IRN stimuli [W. A. Yost, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 100, 511-518 (1996)] processed such that the spectral dominance region is emphasized. These results suggest that the strength of the pitch of IRN stimuli can be described by temporal processing mechanisms as might be revealed by autocorrelation.

Humans↗

PubMed1997

The relationship between localization and the Franssen effect.

The relationship between localization and the Franssen effect was studied for noise and tones in a sound-deadened and in a live room. The noise was wideband and the tones were 250, 500, 1000, 1500, 2500, and 4000 Hz. Listeners were asked to determine the location of the stimuli in a localization task and to discriminate the difference between a pair of stimuli used to generate the Franssen illusion and a steady-state tone in a Franssen-effect discrimination task. Poor performance in the Franssen-effect discrimination task is consistent with the stimulus conditions leading to a strong Franssen illusion. Poor performance in both the Franssen effect and localization tasks was obtained for midfrequency tones (near 1500 Hz) and in the live room. Thus, the Franssen illusion is strongest for a live room and for midfrequency tones consistent with the difficulty listeners have in localizing sounds under these conditions. These results are consistent with those of Hartmann and Rakerd [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 86, 1366-1373 (1989)] and support their suggestion of a correlation between the Franssen effect and localization in rooms.

Amplifiers, Electronic↗

PubMed1997

Modulation detection interference with two-component masker modulators.

Thresholds were measured for detecting amplitude modulation of a single tonal carrier in the presence of modulated maskers. The masker modulator contained either one or two sinusoidal components. As found in previous studies, there was a detrimental effect of masker modulation on the detection of probe modulation. Interference was obtained with a 4-Hz separation between the two components of the masker modulator with the probe modulated at the 4-Hz beat rate. The amount of interference obtained with the two-component masker modulator was greater than that produced by the individual components of the masker modulator. The amount of interference increased with the depth of the masker-modulator beating and the number of masker carriers. The interference due to beating of the masker-modulator components was reduced when the beat rate was increased from 4 to 10 Hz. Results obtained with two-component masker modulators indicate a masking effect not predicted by a spectral representation of the probe and masker envelopes.

Auditory Perception↗

PubMed1997

Binaural modulation detection interference.

The ability to detect amplitude modulation (AM) of a tonal probe can be disrupted by the presence of modulated masking tones. Two experiments examined whether a disparity in the interaural parameters of the probe and masker can reduce the amount of interference. In the first experiment, the effects of interaural time and intensity differences were studied in separate sets of conditions. With low-frequency carriers, the detection of 10-Hz probe modulation in the presence of 10-Hz masker modulation was not significantly affected by interaural time differences. With higher-frequency carriers, dichotic stimuli were generated through combinations of diotic, dichotic, or monotic probe and masker presentations in which the probe and masker did not share a common interaural intensity difference. In these conditions, the amount of interference was affected by the interaural configuration. However, monotic level differences between the probe and masker may have contributed to the effect of interaural configuration. In the second experiment, the probe and masker were presented through separate speakers in an enclosed listening environment. Spatial separation between the sources for the probe and masker led to a small reduction in the amount of interference. When the masker modulation rate was varied with the probe AM rate fixed at 10 Hz, the extent of tuning in the modulation domain in the sound-field conditions was similar to that obtained with diotic stimulus presentation over headphones.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1996

A time domain description for the pitch strength of iterated rippled noise.

Two versions of a cascaded add, attenuate, and delay circuit were used to generate iterated rippled noise (IRN) stimuli. IRN stimuli produce a repetition pitch whose strength relative to the noise can be varied by changing the type of circuit, the attenuation, or the number of iterations in the circuit. Listeners were asked to discriminate between various pairs of IRN stimuli which differed in the type of network used to generate the sounds or the number of iterations (n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9). Performance was determined for IRN stimuli generated with delays of 2, 4, and 8 ms and for four bandpass filter conditions (0-2000, 250-2000, 500-2000, and 750-2000 Hz). Some IRN stimuli were extremely difficult to discriminate despite relatively large spectral differences, while other IRN stimuli produced readily discriminable changes in perception, despite small spectral differences. these contrasting results are inconsistent with simple spectral explanations for the perception of IRN stimuli. An explanation based on the first peak of the autocorrelation function of IRN stimuli is consistent with the results. Simulations of the processing performed by the peripheral auditory system (i.e., interval histograms and correlograms) produce results which are consistent with the involvement of these temporal processes in the perception of IRN stimuli.

Humans↗

PubMed1996

The effect of distractor frequency on judgments of target laterality based on interaural delays.

A two-dimensional stimulus-classification paradigm was used to examine the ability of listeners to judge the laterality of an interaurally delayed low-frequency target component presented concurrently with a distractor component. Of primary interest was the effect on performance of the frequency difference (Delta f) between the target and distractor. In one set of conditions, the target was fixed at 753 Hz and the distractor was 353, 553, 653, 703, 803, 853, 953, or 1153 Hz (fixed within a block of trails). In a second set of conditions, the distractor was fixed at 753 Hz and the target frequency was 353, 553, 653, 703, 803, 953, or 1153 Hz. The listeners were presented with a target component with an interaural delay that varied from trial to trial, taking on one of ten values, five leading to the left ear and five leading to the right. A distractor component was simultaneously presented with an interaural delay that also took on one of the same ten values. Delays ranged from -90 to (+)90 microseconds in 20-microsecond steps. during a block of 100 trials, each of the possible combinations of target and distractor delay was presented once and only once in a random order. Listeners were instructed to make left-right judgments based on the target delay. Each condition was repeated ten times, and the slopes of the best linear boundaries between left and right responses were used to derive the relative weights given to the target and distractor. The duration of the signals was 200 microseconds. Two of the eight listeners weighted the target heavily when the target and distractor were spectrally remote but gave the two components equal weight when the different in frequency was small. These two listeners yielded similar target weights regardless of which component was designated as the target. One listener gave nearly equal weight to the target and the distractor regardless of Delta f. Five of the listeners gave greater weight to the higher of the two frequencies regardless of which was assigned as the target. This high-frequency dominance is explained in terms of cross-correlation functions based on the composite two-tone waveforms.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Pitch of iterated rippled noise.

Iterated rippled noise (IRN) stimuli are generated by a cascade of delay (d), gain (g), and add networks. The matched pitch of IRN stimuli was determined as a function of the type of network used to generate IRN stimuli, the delay (d = 2, 4, and 8 ms), the number of iterations (n = 1,2,3,4,6,8) of the delay and add networks, and whether the delayed noise was added (g = 1) to or subtracted (g = -1) from the undelayed noise. The matched pitch of IRN stimuli did not depend on the type of network. When g = 1 (addition), the matched pitch did not depend on the number of stages of iterations (n) and was always equal to the reciprocal of the delay (1/d). When g = -1 (subtraction), the match pitch depended on n. When n = 1, the matched pitch of IRN stimuli was ambiguous having two pitches in the region of 1/d +/- 10%. When n = 8, the match pitch was equal to 1/2d. This change in the pitch occurred between n = 2 and 6. The results are discussed in terms of spectral and temporal models of complex pitch processing. A temporal model based on autocorrelation was able to provide quantitative predictions for the pitch of these IRN stimuli. However, a spectral type of model can also account for the pitch of these IRN stimuli.

Humans↗

PubMed1996

Pitch strength of iterated rippled noise.

Two versions of a cascade add, attenuate, and delay circuit were used to generate iterated rippled noise (IRN) stimuli. IRN stimuli produce a repetition pitch whose pitch strength relative to the noise percept can be varied by changing the type of circuit, the attenuation, or the number of iterations in the circuit. Listeners were asked to use pitch strength to discriminate between various pairs of IRN stimuli which differed in the type of network used to generate the sounds, the number of iterations, and the attenuation in the network. A description based on an exponential function of the first peak of the autocorrelation function of IRN stimuli is consistent with the results. The discrimination data were well fit by a function based on the difference in the exponential functions of the first peak of the autocorrelation functions. A magnitude estimation experiment indicated that pitch strength was an exponential function of the height of the first peak in the autocorrelation function. These results suggest that the strength of the pitch of IRN stimuli is based on temporal processing as might be revealed by autocorrelation.

Humans↗

PubMed1996

A simulated "cocktail party" with up to three sound sources.

Listeners identified spoken words, letters, and numbers and the spatial location of these utterances in three listening conditions as a function of the number of simultaneously presented utterances. The three listening conditions were a normal listening condition, in which the sounds were presented over seven possible loudspeakers to a listener seated in a sound-deadened listening room; a one-headphone listening condition, in which a single microphone that was placed in the listening room delivered the sounds to a single headphone worn by the listener in a remote room; and a stationary KEMAR listening condition, in which binaural recordings from an acoustic manikin placed in the listening room were delivered to a listener in the remote room. The listeners were presented one, two, or three simultaneous utterances. The results show that utterance identification was better in the normal listening condition than in the one-headphone condition, with the KEMAR listening condition yielding intermediate levels of performance. However, the differences between listening in the normal and in the one-headphone conditions were much smaller when two, rather than three, utterances were presented at a time. Localization performance was good for both the normal and the KEMAR listening conditions and at chance for the one-headphone condition. The results suggest that binaural processing is probably more important for solving the "cocktail party" problem when there are more than two concurrent sound sources.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1995

The synthetic-analytic listening task for modulated signals.

The synthetic-analytic listening task (SALT) developed by Dye and colleagues [Dye et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 96, 2720-2731 (1994)] was applied to a task in which an amplitude-modulated tonal carrier was presented as a target during the standard stimulus. The standard stimulus was followed by a test stimulus in which the target along with another amplitude-modulated carrier (the distractor) was presented. The listener determined if in the test stimulus, the target (which was presented along with the distractor) was higher or lower in modulation depth than when the target was presented alone as the standard stimulus. The target and distractor were either 1- or 4-kHz carriers modulated at one of ten depths of modulation during the test stimulus at modulation rates ranging from 4 to 64 Hz. SALT was used to estimate the relative weight listeners assigned to the target and distractor as a function of the difference between their modulation rates, both for target carrier frequencies above and for target carrier frequencies below the distractor carrier frequency. When the target and distractor were modulated at the same rate, the target and distractor weights were equal, indicating synthetic listening. When the target and distractor differed in modulation rate, the listener gave more weight to the target suggesting a form of analytic listening. The result demonstrate the applicability of SALT to studies of modulation and reinforce the claim that different spectral components modulated with the same modulation pattern are processed synthetically.

Auditory Perception↗

PubMed1994

Modulation detection interference: across-frequency processing and auditory grouping.

Modulation Detection Interference (MDI) is the loss of sensitivity in processing amplitude modulation of a probe tone when a masker is similarly modulated. MDI was measured in four experiments to investigate two past claims concerning MDI: 1) That MDI represents across-spectral processing, and 2) that MDI is the consequence of the auditory system using common patterns of amplitude modulation to group spectral components into a single auditory source. Experiment I studied MDI when the envelope phase of the masker and probe modulators were different and was used to address the issue of the extent to which MDI is a consequence of spectral grouping based on common amplitude modulation. Measures of MDI for conditions in which the frequency separation between the probe and masker carriers was varied (Experiment II), estimates of modulation depth discrimination (Experiment III), and signal detection thresholds for brief sinusoidal signals masked by amplitude modulated tones (Experiment IV) were all used to address issues related to across-spectral processing of amplitude modulation. The conclusions of these studies is that MDI is largely an across-frequency phenomenon and that the role of auditory grouping based on a common pattern of modulation can not be ruled out as having a relationship to MDI.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1994

Stimulus classification procedure for assessing the extent to which binaural processing is spectrally analytic or synthetic.

A two-dimensional stimulus classification paradigm was used to assess the extent to which listeners' processing of interaural delays at low frequencies is spectrally analytic or synthetic. Listeners were presented with a 753-Hz target with an interaural delay that varied from trial to trial, taking on one of ten values, five leading to the left ear and five leading to the right. A 553-Hz distractor component was simultaneously presented, with its interaural delay also presented at one of ten different values. During a block of 100 trials, each of the possible combinations of target and distractor delay was presented once, and only once, in a random order. Listeners were instructed to make left-right judgments based on the target delay. Each condition was repeated ten times, and the slopes of the best linear boundaries between left and right responses were used to derive the relative weights given to the target and distractor in judgments of laterality. Six of the nine listeners gave increasing weight to the target as the duration of the signals was increased from 25 or 50 to 400 ms. Three listeners showed little change with duration; one consistently gave equal weight to the target and distractor, two consistently gave greater weight to the target than to the distractor. The utility of classification paradigms in the study of multidimensional acoustic signals is discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Increment detection of bandlimited noises in the chinchilla.

A positive reinforcement, adaptive tracking procedure was used to study the intensity discrimination abilities of six chinchillas to noise signals. Increment detection thresholds were obtained using a two-down, one-up tracking rule. The effect of overall noise masker level and the effect of noise bandwidth on increment detection thresholds were studied. The continuous noise masker and the signal increment had equal bandwidths. Increment detection thresholds are independent of overall level for wideband noise; the asymptotic DL for wideband noise is 1.334 dB. In addition, increment detection thresholds decrease as the bandwidth of the noise increases. The observed slope of the bandwidth function for the chinchilla is independent of overall level and is around -2.8 dB/decade. The slope of the bandwidth function obtained for the chinchilla is similar to values reported for human subjects under similar conditions, but is less than the slope predicted by the ideal energy detector model.

Acoustic Stimulation↗