Subject: Re: streams and groups From: Bruno Repp <repp(at)ALVIN.HASKINS.YALE.EDU> Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 16:18:49 -0700Sigurd Saue's four time scales, > >1. Sub-unit (the temporal variations that we perceive as timbre). >2. Unit (temporal variations within a stream) >3. Group (temporal variations between streams) >4. Global (the totality of temporal events, not perceived as variation) > seem to map fairly well into: 1. perceptual system (pitch, timbre, localization, etc.) 2. short-term memory 3. long-term memory 4. conceptual system (abstract knowledge) Thus they seem consistent with psychological research in a general way. But note that level 3 does not require different streams. When two groups of events are separated in time, it is unclear whether or not they represent different streams. The concept of streaming is specifically designed to explain the segregation of temporally overlapping series of events. Only simultaneous songs by two birds can give rise to two perceptual streams; one or two birds singing in succession cannot, or only in a more abstract, less directly perceptual sense of the term. --Bruno Bruno H. Repp Research Scientist Haskins Laboratories 270 Crown Street New Haven, CT 06511-6695 Tel. (203) 865-6163, ext. 236 FAX (203) 865-8963 e-mail: repp(at)haskins.yale.edu