Evidence for proactive and retroactive temporal pattern analysis in simultaneous maskinga).

Amplitude modulation (AM) of a masker reduces its masking on a simultaneously presented unmodulated pure-tone target, which likely involves dip listening. This study tested the idea that dip-listening efficiency may depend on stimulus context, i.e.

Perceptual similarity between piano notes: Simulations with a template-based perception model.

In this paper, the auditory model developed by Dau, Kollmeier, and Kohlrausch [(1997). J. Acoust.

Assessing the perceived reverberation in different rooms for a set of musical instrument sounds.

Previous research has shown that the perceived reverberation in a room, or reverberance, depends on the sound source that is being listened to. In a study by Osses Vecchi, Kohlrausch, Lachenmayr, and Mommertz [(2017). J.

Perceptual similarity between piano notes: Experimental method applicable to reverberant and non-reverberant sounds.

In this paper an experimental method to quantify perceptual differences between acoustic stimuli is presented. The experiments are implemented as a signal-in-noise task, where two sounds are to be discriminated. By adjusting the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) the difficulty of the sound discrimination is manipulated.

Noise in the intensive care unit and its influence on sleep quality: a multicenter observational study in Dutch intensive care units.

Background: High noise levels in the intensive care unit (ICU) are a well-known problem. Little is known about the effect of noise on sleep quality in ICU patients. The study aim is to determine the effect of noise on subjective sleep quality.

Cognitive disruption by noise-vocoded speech stimuli: Effects of spectral variation.

The effect of irrelevant sounds on short-term memory was investigated in two experiments using noise-vocoded speech stimuli (NVSS). Speech samples were systematically modified by a noise-vocoder and a set of stimuli varying from amplitude-modulated white noise to intelligible speech was created. Eight NVSS conditions, composed of 1-, 2-, 4-, 6-, 9-, 12-, 15-, and 18-bands, were used as the distracting stimuli in a digit-recall task next to the speech and silence conditions.

Why orchestral musicians are bound to wear earplugs: About the ineffectiveness of physical measures to reduce sound exposure.

Symphony orchestra musicians are exposed to noise levels that put them at risk of developing hearing damage. This study evaluates the potential effectivity of common control measures used in orchestras on open stages with a typical symphonic setup. A validated acoustic prediction model is used that calculates binaural sound exposure levels at the ears of all musicians in the orchestra.

Predicting the perceived reverberation in different room acoustic environments using a binaural auditory model.

In this paper a binaural auditory model was used to compute reverberance estimates in four simulated halls. For three of the halls different absorption conditions were evaluated. The model estimates (pRev) were obtained using music excerpts of an orchestra consisting of 23 instrument sections and then compared with the room acoustic parameters of reverberation time (T) and early decay time (EDT) at mid frequencies.

Noise disturbance in open-plan study environments: a field study on noise sources, student tasks and room acoustic parameters.

The aim of this study is to gain more insight in the assessment of noise in open-plan study environments and to reveal correlations between noise disturbance experienced by students and the noise sources they perceive, the tasks they perform and the acoustic parameters of the open-plan study environment they work in. Data were collected in five open-plan study environments at universities in the Netherlands. A questionnaire was used to investigate student tasks, perceived sound sources and their perceived disturbance, and sound measurements were performed to determine the room acoustic parameters.

The influence of APACHE II score on the average noise level in an intensive care unit: an observational study.

Background: Noise levels in hospitals, especially in intensive care units (ICUs) are known to be high, potentially affecting not only the patients' well-being but also their clinical outcomes. In an observational study, we made a long-term measurement of noise levels in an ICU, and investigated the influence of various factors on the noise level, including the acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score.

Methods: The average noise level was continuously measured for three months in all (eight) patient rooms in an ICU, while the patient data were also registered, including the APACHE II score.

Analysis of the soundscape in an intensive care unit based on the annotation of an audio recording.

The acoustic environments in hospitals, particularly in intensive care units (ICUs), are characterized by frequent high-level sound events which may negatively affect patient outcome. Many studies performed acoustic surveys, but the measurement protocol was not always reported in detail, and the scope of analysis was limited by the selected mode of sound level meters. Fewer studies systematically investigated the noise sources in ICUs by employing an observer in the patient room, which may potentially bias the measurement.

Irrelevant speech effect under stationary and adaptive masking conditions.

The irrelevant speech effect was investigated in this study where the serial-recall task was performed under six different conditions: Silence, speech-only, noise-only, speech masked by a stationary noise at two different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), and speech masked by an adaptive noise. Measured in five test blocks distributed throughout the four test days, the error rate of the serial-recall task under the silence condition sharply decreased in the first few test blocks, halved after completing about seven blocks. When the adaptive masking scheme was used, the error rate of the serial-recall test was reduced compared to the speech-only condition (by 9%) and to the lower-SNR stationary noise (by 4.

Apparent causality affects perceived simultaneity.

The present research addresses the question of how visual predictive information and implied causality affect audio-visual synchrony perception. Previous research has shown a systematic shift in the likelihood of observers to accept audio-leading stimulus pairs as being apparently simultaneous in variants of audio-visual stimulus pairs that differ in (1) the amount of visual predictive information available and (2) the apparent causal relation between the auditory and visual components. An experiment was designed to separate the predictability and causality explanations, and the results indicated that shifts in subjective simultaneity were explained completely by changes in the implied causal relations in the stimuli and that predictability had no added value.

Quantifying temporal ventriloquism in audiovisual synchrony perception.

The integration of visual and auditory inputs in the human brain works properly only if the components are perceived in close temporal proximity. In the present study, we quantified cross-modal interactions in the human brain for audiovisual stimuli with temporal asynchronies, using a paradigm from rhythm perception. In this method, participants had to align the temporal position of a target in a rhythmic sequence of four markers.

Off-frequency BMLD: the role of monaural processing.

Large binaural masking-level differences (BMLDs) can be observed when a tonal signal with an interaural phase difference of π is presented against a diotic masker. The BMLD is large when the signal is spectrally centered in the masker and decreases strongly for off-frequency signals. No such reduction in BMLD would be expected, if monaural detection were governed by energy cues and binaural detection by changes in interaural cross-correlation.

Effects of diotic fringes on interaural disparity detection (L).

Detection thresholds were measured for interaural time differences (ITDs) and interaural level differences (ILDs) that were carried by probe segments embedded in otherwise diotic broadband noise (fringe). The duration of the probe was varied between 5 and 200 ms, and the duration of the fringe was between 5 and 100 ms. Consistent with results of Akeroyd and Bernstein [(2001).

Temporal order judgment criteria are affected by synchrony judgment sensitivity.

Synchrony perception for audio-visual stimulus pairs is typically studied by using temporal order judgment (TOJ) or synchrony judgment (SJ) tasks. Research has shown that estimates of the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS) obtained using these two methods do not necessarily correspond. Here, we investigate the hypothesis that the PSS estimate obtained in a TOJ task is shifted in the direction of the most sensitive part of the synchrony judgment curve, as obtained in an SJ task.

Temporal interval discrimination thresholds depend on perceived synchrony for audio-visual stimulus pairs.

Audio-visual stimulus pairs presented at various relative delays, are commonly judged as being "synchronous" over a range of delays from about -50 ms (audio leading) to +150 ms (video leading). The center of this range is an estimate of the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS). The judgment boundaries, where "synchronous" judgments yield to a predominance of "asynchronous" judgments, usually include physical synchrony, or the point of objective simultaneity (POS).

Gaussian-noise discrimination and its relation to auditory object formation.

This study used a same/different experiment to assess the ability of human listeners to discriminate Gaussian-noise tokens with a spectral range of 350-850 Hz and a duration of 50 ms. For this duration, discrimination ability is high. However, when an identical 200-ms noise fringe with the same statistical properties as the 50-ms target tokens is appended to the end of the two target tokens, listeners show very poor discrimination.

On the ability to discriminate Gaussian-noise tokens or random tone-burst complexes.

This study investigated factors that influence a listeners' ability to discriminate Gaussian-noise stimuli in a same-different discrimination paradigm. The first experiment showed that discrimination ability increased with bandwidth for noise durations up to 100 ms. Duration had a nonmonotonic influence on performance, with a decrease in discriminability for stimuli longer than 40 ms.

Audiovisual synchrony and temporal order judgments: effects of experimental method and stimulus type.

When an audio-visual event is perceived in the natural environment, a physical delay will always occur between the arrival of the leading visual component and that of the trailing auditory component. This natural timing relationship suggests that the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS) should occur at an auditory delay greater than or equal to 0 msec. A review of the literature suggests that PSS estimates derived from a temporal order judgment (TOJ) task differ from those derived from a synchrony judgment (SJ) task, with (unnatural) auditory-leading PSS values reported mainly for the TOJ task.

Sound segregation based on temporal envelope structure and binaural cues.

The ability to segregate two spectrally and temporally overlapping signals based on differences in temporal envelope structure and binaural cues was investigated. Signals were a harmonic tone complex (HTC) with 20 Hz fundamental frequency and a bandpass noise (BPN). Both signals had interaural differences of the same absolute value, but with opposite signs to establish lateralization to different sides of the medial plane, such that their combination yielded two different spatial configurations.

On the influence of interaural differences on temporal perception of noise bursts of different durations.

The perception of a composite sound's temporal cues, like synchronous onsets, is considered essential to correct perceptual grouping of its constituent components. The processing of a single sound's spatial cues, already present at its onset, may interact with temporal perception of the onset. The current study investigated the influence of interaural differences on temporal perception of a sound's onset.