Conference_programme: 21: Source identification and localization
Lecture: Recognition of environmental sounds embedded in natural auditory scenes
Author(s): Żera Jan, Miśkiewicz Andrzej, Rogala Tomira, Rościszewska Teresa, Szczepańska-Antosik Joanna, Majer Jacek
Summary:
This paper reports the results of experiments in which recognition thresholds and recognition reaction time were measured for a number of natural sounds recorded in the human environment. The target environmental sounds were mixed either with recordings of various natural auditory scenes or with multitalker noise. The experiments were conducted on groups of musicians and non-musicians to verify a working hypothesis assuming that musicians more accurately and more readily recognize the sound sources embedded in a background auditory scene than non-musicians. This hypothesis was derived from reports which indicate that musical training and professional musical experience develop not only strictly musical hearing, but also enhance various auditory abilities not directly related with music. Contrary to what was inferred from the reports of the so called “musician’s hearing enhancement effect” the experiment did not demonstrate any pronounced superiority of musicians over non-musicians in the recognition of environmental sound sources: both the recognition thresholds and the recognition reaction time were similar for musicians and non-musicians. The lack of auditory superiority of musicians over non-musicians in the recognition of environmental sound sources may be explained in terms of a listening strategy, known as the casual listening mode, which is a basis for auditory orientation and recognition of the sound sources in the environment. \n[The study was supported by the Polish National Center for Scientific Research, Grant UMO-2013/11/B/HS6/01252. The first author’s participation in the conference was supported by the grant 504G/1034/0416 from the Warsaw University of Technology]. \n
Corresponding author
Name: Prof Jan Żera
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Country: Poland
