Magnitude judgments of loudness change for discrete, dynamic, and hybrid stimuli.

Recent investigations of loudness change within stimuli have identified differences as a function of direction of change and power range (e.g., Canévet, Acustica, 62, 2136-2142, 1986; Neuhoff, Nature, 395, 123-124, 1998), with claims of differences between dynamic and static stimuli.

Evaluation of a neuropsychological screen in an incarcerated population.

The Brief Neuropsychological Cognitive Examination (BNCE) is a screening device designed to rapidly assess neuropsychological functioning. The availability of an effective and efficient screen for neuropsychological and/or cognitive disorders is an important concern within various settings such as correctional facilities, where there are likely to be large numbers of individuals in need of evaluation. In the current study the utility of the BNCE in detecting cognitive impairments among a clinical sample of incarcerated individuals was evaluated by comparing performance on this instrument to performance on measures of general cognitive functioning.

Backward recognition masking as a general type of interference in needed poststimulus processing.

Auditory backward recognition masking (ABRM) has been argued to reflect interference in the storage and/or processing of a short-lived sensory form of information and has been viewed as a relatively invariant attribute of auditory pitch processing for very brief stimuli that are minimally separated in frequency (DeltaF). In contrast, the present study demonstrates that ABRM reflects interference with several basic principles of auditory processing. Measured in terms of target tone duration, rather than DeltaF, ABRM is demonstrated for target stimuli representing the interval of a musical fifth and masker-target stimulus intervals of a musical third, with thresholds ranging from approximately 22 to 55 msec and psychometric functions that are indicative of more than one contributing factor.

Auditory event perception: the source-perception loop for posture in human gait.

There is a small but growing literature on the perception of natural acoustic events, but few attempts have been made to investigate complex sounds not systematically controlled within a laboratory setting. The present study investigates listeners' ability to make judgments about the posture (upright-stooped) of the walker who generated acoustic stimuli contrasted on each trial. We use a comprehensive three-stage approach to event perception, in which we develop a solid understanding of the source event and its sound properties, as well as the relationships between these two event stages.

Contextual relative temporal duration judgment: an investigation of sequence interruptions.

How do listeners judge relative duration? There currently are three primary classes of proposed timing mechanisms: interval based (judgments of discrete events), beat based (judgments of beat synchrony), and oscillator based (judgments of relative phase or synchrony). In the present research, these mechanisms were examined in terms of predictions both about how an induction sequence of preceding intervals affects relative temporal duration comparison in a simple, two-interval task and about how a pause (e.g.

Signal detection theory analyses of semantic priming in word recognition.

Word recognition, semantic priming, and cognitive impenetrability research have used signal detection theory (SDT) measures to separate perceptual and postperceptual processes. In the D. Norris (1986) checking model and model simulation (D.

"Nonparametric" A' and other modern misconceptions about signal detection theory.

Many modern descriptions of signal detection theory (SDT) are, at best, distorted caricatures of the Gaussian equal-variance model of SDT (G-SDT). The distortions have sometimes led to important, but unwarranted, conclusions about the nature of cognitive processes. Some researchers reject using d' and beta because of concerns about the validity of explicit underlying assumptions (that are shared with most inferential statistics), instead using either the supposedly "nonparametric" measures of A' and B" or measures known to confound ability and bias.

Change detection in multi-voice music: the role of musical structure, musical training, and task demands.

This study evaluated the relationship between primitive and scheme-driven grouping (A. S. Bregman, 1990) by comparing the ability of different listeners to detect single note changes in 3-voice musical compositions.