Information in Certain Multidimensional Sounds

Twelve sonar-trained and 12 untrained listeners identified 5 physically similar dimensions (quality, inflection, duration, relative frequency, and source) of speech sounds and of sonar signals. Response time, accuracy, and information-rate measures support a hypothesis that perception is more dependent upon prior experience than upon physical properties of signals per se. A second hypothesis was also supported; it suggested that difficulty in identifying each of the five dimensions would be rank ordered differently, both as a function of signal type and listener experience. Auxiliary findings included an apparent superiority of the right ear for listening to speech sounds and of the left ear for other kinds of sounds. Other results suggested that a short-term memory phenomenon was occurring.