Abstract:
In a natural environment, perceptual fusion of a sound may occur despite the fact that multiple echoes exist. If a train of repeating sources and echoes is established experimentally, the echoes are suppressed and perceptual fusion is established. In the present study, perceptual fusion was investigated by having listeners attend to the last sound presented in a train of sources and echoes. The effects of the number of sounds presented during a train, time delay between sources and echoes, relative amplitude between sources and echoes, and number of echoes presented were investigated. Results indicate that there is an interaction between time delay and number of echoes in perceptual fusion. Relative amplitude of the source and echoes also affected perceptual fusion. These findings will be discussed in terms of the conditions under which perceptual fusion seems to occur and its relation to a listener's prior experience in an acoustic environment. [Work supported by NIDCD and AFOSR.]