Masutomi Keiko, Barascud Nicolas, Kashino Makio, McDermott Josh H, Chait Maria
Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Ear Institute, University College London.
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2016 Mar;42(3):386-400. doi: 10.1037/xhp0000147. Epub 2015 Oct 19.
The segregation of sound sources from the mixture of sounds that enters the ear is a core capacity of human hearing, but the extent to which this process is dependent on attention remains unclear. This study investigated the effect of attention on the ability to segregate sounds via repetition. We utilized a dual task design in which stimuli to be segregated were presented along with stimuli for a "decoy" task that required continuous monitoring. The task to assess segregation presented a target sound 10 times in a row, each time concurrent with a different distractor sound. McDermott, Wrobleski, and Oxenham (2011) demonstrated that repetition causes the target sound to be segregated from the distractors. Segregation was queried by asking listeners whether a subsequent probe sound was identical to the target. A control task presented similar stimuli but probed discrimination without engaging segregation processes. We present results from 3 different decoy tasks: a visual multiple object tracking task, a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) digit encoding task, and a demanding auditory monitoring task. Load was manipulated by using high- and low-demand versions of each decoy task. The data provide converging evidence of a small effect of attention that is nonspecific, in that it affected the segregation and control tasks to a similar extent. In all cases, segregation performance remained high despite the presence of a concurrent, objectively demanding decoy task. The results suggest that repetition-based segregation is robust to inattention.
从进入耳朵的声音混合中分离声源是人类听力的一项核心能力，但这一过程在多大程度上依赖于注意力仍不清楚。本研究调查了注意力对通过重复来分离声音能力的影响。我们采用了一种双重任务设计，其中要分离的刺激与一个需要持续监测的“诱饵”任务的刺激同时呈现。评估分离的任务连续10次呈现一个目标声音，每次都与不同的干扰声音同时出现。麦克德莫特、弗罗布尔斯基和奥克森汉姆（2011年）证明，重复会使目标声音与干扰声音分离。通过询问听众随后的探测声音是否与目标声音相同来查询分离情况。一个对照任务呈现类似的刺激，但在不涉及分离过程的情况下探测辨别能力。我们展示了来自3种不同诱饵任务的结果：视觉多目标跟踪任务、快速序列视觉呈现（RSVP）数字编码任务和一项要求较高的听觉监测任务。通过使用每种诱饵任务的高要求和低要求版本来操纵负荷。数据提供了注意力有微小影响的趋同证据，这种影响是非特异性的，因为它对分离任务和对照任务的影响程度相似。在所有情况下，尽管存在一个同时进行的、客观上要求较高的诱饵任务，分离表现仍然很高。结果表明，基于重复的分离对注意力不集中具有鲁棒性。
