Audition: Temporal Factors

Stanley Sheft

Most sounds are temporally complex, marked by variations over time in acoustic characteristics or events. Both speech and music represent common examples of sounds that vary over time with change of characteristic and of content. Extraction of the information contained in temporally complex sounds requires response by the auditory system to these changes. Resolution, the ability to temporally resolve or follow stimulus variations, is a central aspect of the study of auditory temporal factors. Often, however, auditory perception is governed by a summation or accumulation of information over time. Thus, a second temporal factor is integration. Finally, a third aspect that incorporates both resolution and integration is the study of the perception of a sequence of resolved acoustic events in terms of pattern processing. This entry describes temporal factors of audition such as time, frequency, and modulation; resolution; integration; and auditory segregation and pattern processing. Sound is a pressure waveform ...

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