Fluctuations in sound amplitude provide important cues to the identity of many sounds including speech. Of interest here was whether the ability to detect these fluctuations can be improved with practice, and if so whether this learning generalizes to untrained cases. To address these issues, normal-hearing adults (n = 9) were trained to detect sinusoidal amplitude modulation (SAM; 80-Hz rate, 3–4 kHz bandpass carrier) 720 trials/day for 6–7 days and were tested before and after training on related SAM-detection and SAM-rate-discrimination conditions. Controls (n = 9) only participated in the pre- and post-tests. The trained listeners improved more than the controls on the trained condition between the pre- and post-tests, but different subgroups of trained listeners required different amounts of practice to reach asymptotic performance, ranging from 1 (n = 6) to 4–6 (n = 3) sessions. This training-induced learning did not generalize to detection with two untrained carrier spectra (5 kHz low-pass and 0.5–1.5 kHz bandpass) or to rate discrimination with the trained rate and carrier spectrum, but there was some indication that it generalized to detection with two untrained rates (30 and 150 Hz). Thus, practice improved the ability to detect amplitude modulation, but the generalization of this learning to untrained cases was somewhat limited.
REFERENCES
1.
Ahissar
, M.
, and Hochstein
, S.
(1996
). “Learning pop-out detection
,” Vision Res.
36
, 3487
–3500
.2.
Ahissar
, M.
, and Hochstein
, S.
(2004
). “The reverse hierarchy theory of visual perceptual learning
,” Trends Cogn. Sci.
8
, 457
–464
.3.
Amitay
, S.
, Irwin
, A.
, and Moore
, D. R.
(2006
). “Discrimination learning induced by training with identical stimuli
,” Nat. Neurosci.
9
, 1446
–1448
.4.
Bacon
, S. P.
, and Grantham
, D. W.
(1989
). “Modulation masking: Effects of modulation frequency, depth, and phase
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
85
, 2575
–2580
.5.
Burns
, E. M.
, and Viemeister
, N. F.
(1976
). “Nonspectral pitch
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
60
, 863
–869
.6.
Cazals
, Y.
, Pelizzone
, M.
, Saudan
, O.
, and Boex
, C.
(1994
). “Low-pass filtering in amplitude modulation detection associated with vowel and consonant identification in subjects with cochlear implants
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
96
, 2048
–2054
.7.
Dau
, T.
, Kollmeier
, B.
, and Kohlrausch
, A.
(1997a
). “Modeling auditory processing of amplitude modulation. I. Detection and masking with narrow-band carriers
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
102
, 2892
–2905
.8.
Dau
, T.
, Kollmeier
, B.
, and Kohlrausch
, A.
(1997b
). “Modeling auditory processing of amplitude modulation. II. Spectral and temporal integration
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
102
, 2905
–2919
.9.
Demany
, L.
(1985
). “Perceptual learning in frequency discrimination
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
78
, 1118
–1120
.10.
Demany
, L.
, and Semal
, C.
(2002
). “Learning to perceive pitch differences
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
111
, 1377
–1387
.11.
Dosher
, B. A.
, and Lu
, Z. L.
(1998
). “Perceptual learning reflects external noise filtering and internal noise reduction through channel reweighting
,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
95
, 13988
–13993
.12.
Drullman
, R.
, Festen
, J. M.
, and Plomp
, R.
(1994a
). “Effect of temporal envelope smearing on speech reception
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
95
, 1053
–1064
.13.
Drullman
, R.
, Festen
, J. M.
, and Plomp
, R.
(1994b
). “Effect of reducing slow temporal modulations on speech reception
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
95
, 2670
–2680
.14.
Eddins
, D. A.
(1993
). “Amplitude modulation detection of narrow-band noise: Effects of absolute bandwidth and frequency region
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
93
, 470
–479
.16.
Ewert
, S. D.
, and Dau
, T.
(2000
). “Characterizing frequency selectivity for envelope fluctuations
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
108
, 1181
–1196
.17.
Fahle
, M.
(2004
). “Perceptual learning: A case for early selection
,” J. Vision
4
, 879
–890
.18.
Fitzgerald
, M. B.
, and Wright
, B. A.
(2005
). “A perceptual learning investigation of the pitch elicited by amplitude-modulated noise
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
118
, 3794
–3803
.19.
Fu
, Q. J.
(2002
). “Temporal processing and speech recognition in cochlear implant users
,” NeuroReport
13
, 1635
–1639
.20.
Grant
, K. W.
, Summers
, V.
, and Leek
, M. R.
(1998
). “Modulation rate detection and discrimination by normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
104
, 1051
–1060
.21.
Grimault
, N.
, Micheyl
, C.
, Carlyon
, R. P.
, Bacon
, S. P.
, and Collet
, L.
(2003
). “Learning in discrimination of frequency or modulation rate: Generalization to fundamental frequency discrimination
,” Hear. Res.
184
, 41
–50
.22.
Hall
, J. W.
III, and Grose
, J. H.
(1994
). “Development of temporal resolution in children as measured by the temporal modulation transfer function
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
96
, 150
–154
.23.
Hawkey
, D. J.
, Amitay
, S.
, and Moore
, D. R.
(2004
). “Early and rapid perceptual learning
,” Nat. Neurosci.
7
(10
), 1055
–1056
.24.
Houtgast
, T.
(1989
). “Frequency selectivity in amplitude-modulation detection
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
85
, 1676
–1680
.25.
Jepsen
, M. L.
, Ewert
, S. D.
, and Dau
, T.
(2008
). “A computational model of human auditory signal processing and perception
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
124
, 422
–438
.26.
Joris
, P. X.
, Schreiner
, C. E.
, and Rees
, A.
(2004
). “Neural processing of amplitude-modulated sounds
,” Physiol. Rev.
84
, 541
–577
.27.
Karni
, A.
, and Sagi
, D.
(1991
). “Where practice makes perfect in texture discrimination: Evidence for primary visual cortex plasticity
,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
88
, 4966
–4970
.28.
Kohlrausch
, A.
, Fassel
, R.
, and Dau
, T.
(2000
). “The influence of carrier level and frequency on modulation and beat-detection thresholds for sinusoidal carriers
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
108
, 723
–734
.29.
Levitt
, H.
(1971
). “Transformed up-down procedures in psychoacoustics
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
49
, 467
–477
.30.
Lorenzi
, C.
, Dumont
, A.
, and Fullgrabe
, C.
(2000
). “Use of temporal envelope cues by children with developmental dyslexia
,” J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res.
43
, 1367
–1379
.31.
Menell
, P.
, McNally
, K. I.
, and Stein
, J. F.
(1999
). “Psychophysical sensitivity and physiological response to amplitude modulation in adult dyslexic listeners
,” J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res.
42
, 797
–803
.32.
Mollon
, J. D.
, and Danilova
, M. V.
(1996
). “Three remarks on perceptual learning
,” Spatial Vis.
10
, 51
–58
.33.
Mossbridge
, J. A.
, Fitzgerald
, M. B.
, O’Connor
, E. S.
, and Wright
, B. A.
(2006
). “Perceptual-learning evidence for separate processing of asynchrony and order tasks
,” J. Neurosci.
26
(49
), 12708
–12716
.34.
Mossbridge
, J. A.
, Scissors
, B. N.
, and Wright
, B. A.
(2008
). “Learning and generalization on asynchrony order tasks at sound offset: Implications for underlying neural circuitry
,” Learn. Memory
15
(1
), 13
–20
.35.
Ortiz
, J. A.
, and Wright
, B. A.
(2009
). “Contributions of procedure and stimulus learning to early, rapid perceptual improvements
,” J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform.
35
(1
), 188
–194
.36.
Patterson
, R. D.
, Johnson-Davies
, D.
, and Milroy
, R.
(1978
). “Amplitude-modulated noise: The detection of modulation versus the detection of modulation rate
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
63
, 1904
–1911
.37.
Petrov
, A. A.
, Dosher
, B. A.
, and Lu
, Z. -L.
(2005
). “The dynamics of perceptual learning: An incremental reweighting model
,” Psychol. Rev.
112
(4
), 715
–743
.38.
Plomp
, R.
(1983
). “The role of modulation in hearing
,” in Hearing—Physiological Bases and Psychophysics
, edited by R.
Klinke
and R.
Hartman
(Springer-Verlag
, Berlin
), pp. 270
–276
.39.
Poggio
, T.
, Fahle
, M.
, and Edelman
, S.
(1992
). “Fast perceptual learning in visual hyperacuity
,” Science
256
, 1018
–1021
.40.
Recanzone
, G. H.
, Schreiner
, C. E.
, and Merzenich
, M. M.
(1993
). “Plasticity in the frequency representation of primary auditory cortex following discrimination training in adult monkeys
,” J. Neurosci.
13
, 87
–103
.41.
Rocheron
, I.
, Lorenzi
, C.
, Fullgrabe
, C.
, and Dumont
, A.
(2002
). “Temporal envelope perception in dyslexic children
,” NeuroReport
63
, 1904
–1911
.42.
Rosen
, S.
(1992
). “Temporal information in speech: Acoustic, auditory, and linguistic aspects
,” Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. B
336
, 367
–373
.43.
Shannon
, R. V.
, Zeng
, F. G.
, Kamath
, V.
, Wygonski
, J.
, and Ekelid
, M.
(1995
). “Speech recognition with primarily temporal cues
,” Science
270
(5324
), 303
–304
.44.
Steeneken
, H. J.
, and Houtgast
, T.
(1980
). “A physical method for measuring speech-transmission quality
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
67
, 318
–326
.45.
Viemeister
, N. F.
(1979
). “Temporal modulation transfer functions based upon modulation thresholds
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
66
, 1364
–1380
.46.
Witton
, C.
, Stein
, J. F.
, Stoodley
, C. J.
, Rosner
, B. S.
, and Talcott
, J. B.
(2002
). “Separate influences of acoustic AM and FM sensitivity on the phonological decoding skills of impaired and normal readers
,” J. Cogn. Neurosci.
14
, 866
–874
.47.
Wright
, B. A.
, Buonomano
, D. V.
, Mahncke
, H. W.
, and Merzenich
, M. M.
(1997
). “Learning and generalization of auditory temporal-interval discrimination in humans
,” J. Neurosci.
17
(10
), 3956
–3963
.48.
Wright
, B. A.
, and Fitzgerald
, M. B.
(2001
). “Different patterns of human discrimination learning for two interaural cues to sound-source location
,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
98
, 12307
–12312
.49.
Wright
, B. A.
, and Zhang
, Y.
(2009
). “A review of the generalization of auditory learning
,” Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. B
364
(1515
), 301
–311
.50.
Yost
, W. A.
, Sheft
, S.
, and Opie
, J.
(1989
). “Modulation interference in detection and discrimination of amplitude modulation
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
86
, 2138
–2147
.51.
Zhang
, Y.
, and Wright
, B. A.
(2007
). “Similar patterns of learning and performance variability for human discrimination of interaural time difference at high and low frequencies
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
121
, 2207
–2216
.52.
Zhang
, Y.
, and Wright
, B. A.
(2009
). “An influence of amplitude modulation on interaural level difference processing as suggested by learning patterns of human adults
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
126
, 1349
–1358
.© 2011 Acoustical Society of America.
2011
Acoustical Society of America
You do not currently have access to this content.