Successive versus simultaneous comparison in auditory intensity discrimination

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Abstract
The ability to discriminate between 2 brief sounds having identical frequency components, but differing in the intensity of 1 or more of the components, is studied. The stimulus manipulations include randomizing the overall intensity of the sounds, varying the number and spacing of the components, and varying the interval of time between the sounds. The results from the experiment in which interstimulus interval is manipulated clearly support a profile analysis mechanism that computes 2 rough spectral analyses, stores a classification of these spectra in memory, and compares the 2 stores. This profile mechanism involves a simultaneous comparison of different components of the complex, some remote from the signal frequency, rather than a successive comparison of the difference in intensity at the signal frequency. The simultaneous comparison process is more sensitive when the profile is composed of many components spaced over a wide frequency range.

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