Signal detection of auditory sensory responses to stimuli - auditory information processin

Jeffress, L. A.

English

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D E F E N S E  R E S E A R C H  L A B O R A T O R Y  
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15 October 1965 
LAJ:bd 
Supervisor, Psychoacoustfcs Section 
Office of Grants and Research Contracts 
Office 3f Space Science and Applications 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
Washington, D. C. 20546 
Attn: Code SC 
Contract Nonr-3579(04j 
(1 June 1965 through 31  August 1965), Transmittal  of 
F i f th  Quar te r ly  Pragress Report 
F i f t h  Quarter ly  Progress Report on Contract Nonr-3579( 04 j 
Defense Research Laboratory is  pleased t o  submit. t h e  enclosure as a 
report  of progress made during t h e  period 1 June 1965 through 3 1  August 1965 
!on Contract Nonr-3579(04). 
L. A. Jefi"ress 
WPHGVED : APPROVED : 
-- 
R. H. Wallace 
Head, Acoustics Division 
ITHRUJ 
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https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19660004701 2020-03-16T21:23:55+00:00Z
15 October 1365 
LAJ:bd 
Copy No. 11 . 
Report f o r  Contract Nonr-3579(04) 
for  t h e  period 1 June 1965 through 3 1  August 1965 
Supported by Contract R-129-09-030-017 with t h e  National Aeronaut.ics 
and SDace Administration 
Status  of Proposed Problems 
A. Problem 1-a. Receiver Operating Character is t ics  f o r  Visual Detection 
TAnn Tucker and R. B. Evans) 
This problem has been completed and the  findings are being prepared 
f o r  publ icat ion and issuance as a report under t h e  grant.  One important 
f inding is  methodological. 
ra t ing-sca le  data  yielded by a subject on one occasion can be cDmbined with 
data from another occasion by simply adding t h e  percentages associated with 
corresponding points along t h e  scale (counter readings),  or whether it i s  
necessary t o  p lo t  ROC curves f o r  each s i t t i n g  and average t h e i r  cQordinates. 
The l a t t e r  procedure has the  stronger t h e o r e t i c a l  support, but involves a 
grea t  deal  more t i m e  and e f f a r t .  A study of a large quant i ty  of data  taken 
i n  connection with t h e  present problem has shown t h a t  t h e  curves r e s u l t i n g  
from t h e  two procedures do not d i f f e r  i n  any s igni f icant  way. Even when 
extreme v a r i a b i l i t y  i n  t h e  s u b j e c t ' s  responses e x i s t s ,  t h e  data averaged 
t h e  simple way y i e l d  e s s e n t i a l l y  the same ROC curve as when averaged curve 
by curve. The t i m e  and e f f o r t  saved by t h e  simpler method i s  substant ia l .  
Heretofore t h e r e  has been uncertainty about whether 
Problem 1-b. 
(G.  II. Jacobs and H. A. Gaylord) 
Psychophysical Studies of Brightness 
These s tudies  a r e  continuing, and some r e s u l t s  should be ready for  
summarizing i n  t h e  next quar te r ly  report .  
Problem 1-c. 
(G.  H. Jacobs and H. A. Gaylord) 
Physiological Studies of Brightness 
has  been 
An a r t i c l e  covering a portion of t h e  work being done under t h i s  problem 
accepted f o r  publication i n  t h e  Journal of t h e  Optical  Society of America 
1 
15 October 1965 
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f o r  Novemberp 1965. 
t h e  grant .  
Geniculate Response t o  Light Increment and Decrement." 
Reprints of t h e  a r t i c l e  w i l l  be issued as a repor t  under 
The a r t i c l e  i s  e n t i t l e d  "Effects of Adaptation on t h e  Latera l  
B. Problem 2. Signal Detection as a Function of Vigilance 
( C .  S. Watson and T. L. Nichols) 
Work on t h i s  problem i s  under way i n  t h e  newly i n s t a l l e d  
Autonomies b b o r a t o r y  of t he  Psychology Department. The work involves severa l  
stimulus s i t u a t i o n s  i n  which selected t r i a l s  are assigned enhanced importance-- 
sometimes through t h e  use of e l ec t r i c  shock o r  t h e  th rea t  of shock. Both 
regular ly  scheduled stimulus intervals ,  and randomly occurring i n t e r v a l s  a r e  
being employed; a record i s  kept o f t h e  s u b j e c t ' s  galvanic skin response t o  
t h e  var ious s t imuli .  A new method of measuring t h e  GSR response i s  being 
employed with t h e  hope t h a t  it w i l l  el iminate many of t h e  sources of unwanted 
v a r i a b i l i t y  i n  sub jec t s '  responses. 
C. Problem 3. Signal Duration and t h e  Width of C r i t i c a l  Bands 
(L .  A. J e f f r e s s )  
Work on t h i s  problem i s  being deferred u n t i l  a new s e t  of f i l t e r s  with 
appropriate  amplif iers  has been assembled. Work so  far ind ica tes  t h a t  t h e  band 
i s  not symmetrical and t h e  f i l t e r s  (low-pass and high-pass with very s t eep  
cu to f f s )  t h a t  are t o  be employed w i l l  obtain a b e t t e r  assessment of t h e  shape 
of the  c r i t i c a l  band than is  presently avaf lable .  
D. New Problems 
(L.  A. Jeffr 'ess  and A. D. Gastmj 
The recent  a v a i l a b i l i t y  i n  t h e  Defense Research Laboratory of a 
Computer of Average Transients (CAT) and various accessories  fo r  it has made 
poss ib le  a s e r i e s  of s tud ies  of the behavior of an e l e c t r i c a l  model incorporating 
seve ra l  fea tures  believed t o  be employed by t h e  hearing mechanism. 
s t u d i e s  a r e  being made of detection under both monaural and b inaura l  stimulus 
conditions.  Two papers r e su l t i ng  from t h i s  work a r e  being presented a t  the  
With it 
2 
15 October 1965 
LAJ:bd 
November meeting of t h e  Acoustical  Society o f  America. 
are appended t o  t h e  present repor t .  
suggested th ree  new experiments w i t h  human subjects :  one involving t h e  
determination of t h e  psychometric function for  gated noise  and s igna l  as f u n c t i m  
o f  duration ( t h i s  i s  c lose ly  r e l a t ed  t o  Problem 3 on t h e  width of the c r i t i c a l  
band). 
b inaura l  detect ion.  
function i s  d i f f e ren t  than t h a t  f o r  monaural detect ion.  A t h i r d ,  near ly  com- 
pleted,  involves determining t h e  shape of t he  ROC curve f o r  ant iphasic  st imulus 
conditions.  
Abstracts o f  t h e  papers 
Results of experiments w i t h  t h e  model have 
A second involves obtaining the  psychometric funct ion f o r  an t iphas ic  
Observations with the  model suggest t h a t  t h e  shape of t h i s  
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APPENDIX 
STATISTICS OF INTERAURAL, TIME DIFFERETVCES UNDER ANTIPHASIC STIMULUS CONDITIONS 
Lloyd A. J e f f r e s s  and Audley D. Gaston, Jr. 
The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 
Department o f  Psychology and Defense Research Laboratory 
ABSTRACT 
A t  t h e  Austin meeting of t h e  Society, Watson, Ri l l ing ,  and Bourbon presented 
ROC curves obtained from sub jec t s '  responses under one ant iphasic  condition, 
NO Sn. An attempt w a s  made t o  f i t  t h e i r  data  from t h e o r e t i c a l l y  derived 
probabi l i ty  dens i t i e s  f o r  noise  and signal.  The s igna l  d i s t r ibu t ion  w a s  
obtained by a r a the r  tedious numerical computation. The present paper w i l l  
show examples of t h e  i n t e r a u r a l  time differences a r i s i n g  under various a n t i -  
phasic stimulus conditions.  The d i s t r ibu t ion  f o r  d i cho t i ca l ly  presented noise,  
Nn, i s  sharply lep tokur t ic .  The d i s t r ibu t ion  obtained by adding a s ignal ,  
N J ~  SO,  i s  bimodal with grea te r  separation of t h e  modes as t h e  s igna l  i s  
increased. 
t h e  Rayleigh d i s t r ibu t ion ,  and has zero frequency of occurrence of zero 
i n t e r a u r a l  time differences.  
The d i s t r i b u t i o n  f o r  NO S J ~  has a densi ty  function which resembles 
ROC CURVES FROM AN EAR MODEL 
Lloyd A. J e f f r e s s  and Audley D. Gaston, Jr. 
The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 
Department of Psychology and Defense Research Laboratory 
ABSTRACT 
Many inves t iga t ions  have likened the  ear  i n  i t s  a b i l i t y  t o  de tec t  a t o n a l  s igna l  
i n  noise ,  t o  a narrow f i l t e r  followed by a detector  mechanism. The present 
paper describes t h e  performance of  such a device, consis t ing of a 50 cps f i l t e r  
centered a t  500 cps followed by an envelope f i l t e r .  The l a t t e r  i s  a half-wave 
r e c t i f i e r ,  an RC in tegra tor ,  and a low-pass f i l t e r .  Gated noise or noise plus  
s i g n a l  i s  presented t o  t h e  device and i t s  output i s  sampled at  each presentat ion.  
For a stimulus durat ion equal t o  the  rec iproca l  of t h e  bandwidth of t h e  f i l t e r ,  
t h e  e f f i c i ency  measure, is  near t o  uni ty .  A t  longer and shor te r  durations 
t h e  e f f ic iency  decreases. The ROC curves yielded by t h e  device resemble those 
obtained with human subjects ,  and are shaped l i k e  those f o r  t h e  i d e a l  detector  
of a s i g n a l  of unknown phase. 
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15 October 1965 
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DISTRIBUTION LIST FOR QUARTERLY’TROGRESS REPORT NO. 5 
UNDER CONTRACT Nonr-3379( 04) 
Office of Grants and Research Contracts 
Office of Space Science and Applications 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
Washington, D. C. 20546 
Attn: Code SC 
Chief of Human Performance Biotechnology Division 
NASA Ames Research Center 
Moffett Field,, Cal i forn ia  
Attn: D r .  R .  M. Patton 
L. A. Je f f ress ,  DRL/iPT 
R.  H. Wallace,  DRL/UT 
Library, DRL/UT 


Studies of auditory information processing emphasizing the application of signal detectability theory to the auditory sensory responses  Fifth quarterly progress report, 1 Jun. - 31 Aug. 1965

Studies of auditory information processing emphasizing the application of signal detectability theory to the auditory sensory responses Fifth quarterly progress report, 1 Jun. - 31 Aug. 1965

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