attention (at)


Subject: attention
From:    at <mrjonesMAGNUS.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU>
Date:    Wed, 16 Nov 1994 14:34:34 -0500

I agree that developments in theory and research on attending to auditory events have taken a back seat to those found in vision research. But a few labs have focused on the topic over the years. Watson's lab is one. Another is our lab at Ohio State. My colleagues and I have been working on issues surrounding dynamic attending to auditory events (auditory patterns including music) for over two decades. Since 1976, we have pursued hypotheses that (in one form or another) consider if attending is controlled (in part) by the time structure of events themselves (e.g., event rhythm, rate, frequency changes etc.). The core of this approach posits that attending is inherently temporal, based on the activity of sets of internal periodicities (i.e., attending rhythms or oscillators). These periodicities are assumed to be capable of entraining of corresponding time intervals within auditory events depending on the events' structural properties. Essentially, we assume various periodic attentional pulses, that are more or less "well-timed" vis a vis a sequence, can determine how well people might pick up information unfolding within some dynamic array. Various specific hypotheses address the way factors such as event rhythm, frequency relationships, tempo affect: a) time change detection; b) pitch change detection; c) memory for melody; d)tracking an extended pattern in time; e) time estimation; f) skill (musical training effects) on dynamic attending, and so on. Anyone interested in reprints on such topics should drop me a line. MRJ mari riess jones ohio state university


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Electrical Engineering Dept., Columbia University