The effect of tone duration on auditory stream formation

In a study in which the effect of tone duration on the formation of auditory streams was investigated, subjects were presented with 15-sec alternating pure-tone sequences (ABAB...) and were asked to orient their attention over the duration of the sequence toward hearing either a temporally coherent or a segregated percept. At stimulus offset, the subjects indicated whether their percept at the end of the stimulus had been that of a temporally coherent ABAB trill or that of segregated A and B streams. The experimental results indicated that the occurrence of stream segregation increases as (1) the duration of the A and B tones increases in unison and (2) the difference in duration between the A and B tones increases, with the duration differences between the tones producing the strongest segregation effects. A comparison of these experimental results with those of other studies strongly suggests that the time interval between the offset and onset of consecutive tones in the same frequency range is the most important temporal factor affecting auditory stream formation. Furthermore, a simulation of the experimental results by the Beauvois and Meddis (1996) stream segregation model suggests that both the tone duration effects reported here and Gestalt auditory grouping on the basis of temporal proximity can be understood in terms of low-level neurophysiological processes and peripheral-channeling factors.