How do non-temporal features bias our judgements of timing of auditory sequences?

When listening to sequences of sounds, pitch and timing information interact to form expectations about when and where an auditory event will occur. Disruptions in the pitch or timing of an auditory event (e.g., in virtual settings such as Zoom or phone calls) can create conflicting cues that alter the perception of auditory events making communication more difficult. Furthermore, deficits in utilizing pitch or timing cues are exacerbated in listeners with auditory pathologies such as hearing impairment or amusia that are known to disrupt pitch or timing perception leading to significant problems in listening in noisy environments. This study examines how non-temporal aspects of sounds such as pitch affect relative timing judgments for sequences of sounds. We hypothesize that people use non-temporal cues to group together discrete sound events, leading to a bias in timing where sounds that “belong together” are perceived as occurring closer together in time.

This work was presented as a poster at ARO 2024: ARO_Poster_KrogerBanakisMehta_2024