Progress in Understanding Auditory Scene Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, I make the following claims: (1) Subjective experience is tremendously useful in guiding productive research. (2) Studies of auditory scene analysis (ASA) in adults, newborn infants, and non-human animals (e.g., in goldfish or pigeons) establish the generality of ASA and suggest that it has an innate foundation. (3) ASA theory does not favor one musical style over another. (4) The principles used in the composition of polyphony (slightly modified) apply not only to one particular musical style or culture but to any form of layered music. (5) Neural explanations of ASA do not supersede explanations in terms of capacities; the two are complementary. (6) In computational auditory scene analysis (CASA) – ASA by computer systems – or any adequate theory of ASA, the most difficult challenge will be to discover how the contributions of a very large number of types of acoustical evidence and top-down schemas (acquired knowledge about the sound sources in our environments), can be coordinated without producing conflict that disables the system. (7) Finally I argue that the movement of a listener within the auditory scene provides him/her/it with rich information that should not be ignored by ASA theorists and researchers.