Detection of acoustic repetition for very long stochastic patterns

Guttman and Julesz (1963) employed recycling frozen noise segments (RFNs) as model stimuli in their classic study of the lower limits for periodicity detection and short-term auditory memory. They reported that listeners can hear iteration of these stochastic signals effortlessly as "motorboating" for repetition periods ranging from 50 to 250 msec and as "whooshing" from 250 msec to 1 sec. Both motorboating and whooshing RFNs are global percepts encompassing the entire period, as are RFNs in the pitch range (repetition periods shorter than 50 msec). However, with continued listening to whooshing (but not motorboating) RFNs, individuals hear recurrent brief components such as clanks and thumps that are characteristic of the particular waveform. Experiment 1 of the present study describes a cross-modal cuing procedure that enables listeners to store and then recognize the recurrence of portions of frozen noise waveforms that are repeated after intervals of 10 sec or more. Experiment 2 compares the relative saliencies of different spectral regions in enabling listeners to detect repetition of these long-period patterns. Special difficulty was encountered with the 6-kHz band of RFNs, possibly due to the lack of fine-structure phase locking at this frequency range. In addition, a similarity is noted between the organizational principles operating over particular durational ranges of stochastic patterns and the characteristics of traditional hierarchical units of speech having corresponding durations.