Shari L. Campbell
Edward M. Burns
Hear. Res. Lab., Dept. of Speech and Hear. Sci., Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
A series of experiments was used to evaluate absolute identification resolution for rise time, bandwidth, and spectral slope. Stimuli were complex tones comprising the first 40 harmonics of 200 Hz. Ranges for each physical dimension were restricted to those with validity to natural music and speech signals, and the number of categories ranged from three to five. A paradigm similar to one designed to assess channel capacity, perceptual interaction, and the relationship between uni- and multidimensional resolution [Durlach et al., Percept. Psychophys. 46, 293--296 (1989)] was employed. Performance was quantified in terms of information transfer. Unidimensional identifications were made for both fixed and roved background conditions in order to determine the extent to which the dimensions interacted perceptually. Resolution in two- and three-dimensional identification tasks were compared to resolution in unidimensional tasks in order to assess the degree to which the summed unidimensional information transfers from both fixed and roved background conditions predict multidimensional information transfer. [Work supported by the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center.]