A computer model of auditory stream segregation

• Main Author: Beauvois, Michael W.
• Published: Loughborough University 1991
• Subjects: 534; Sound source separation
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.316328

A simple computer model is described that takes a novel approach to the problem of accounting for perceptual coherence among successive pure tones of changing frequency by using simple physiological principles that operate at a peripheral, rather than a central level. The model is able to reproduce a number of streaming phenomena found in the literature using the same parameter values. These are: (1) the build-up of streaming over time; (2) the temporal coherence and fission boundaries of human listeners; (3) the ambiguous region; and (4) the trill threshold. In addition, the principle of excitation integration used in the model can be used to account for auditory grouping on the basis of the Gestalt perceptual principles of closure, proximity, continuity, and good continuation, as well as the pulsation threshold. The examples of Gestalt auditory grouping accounted for by the excitation integration principle indicate that the predictive power of the model would be considerably enhanced by the addition of a cross-channel grouping mechanism that worked on the basis of common on sets and offsets, as more complex stimuli could then be processed by the model.