Auditory perception runs parallel bottom-up and top-down processes

Evidence

There appear to be two processes running in parallel during perception. A primitive, bottom-up mechanism automatically orders incoming acoustic stimuli via certain acoustic features. The second, top-down mechanism allows us selectively to attend to whichever features we desire (for instance, a certain pitch, location, time interval, or frequency range). In general, we can focus our attention only on one detail at any one time, although by switching rapidly and by using our short-term auditory memory we can attend to a few targets at the same time. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1321

To be heard and understood, the auditory brain must transform a time-varying acoustic stimulus into a perceptual representation; that is, a sound. Auditory perception is associated with a number of computational processes, which may act in parallel or serial, including: perceptual grouping, decision-making, attention, and categorization. … (1) Perceptual grouping is a form of feature-based stimulus segmentation that determines whether acoustic events will be grouped into a single sound or be segregated into distinct sounds (Bregman 1990 ). … (2) Auditory decision-making is a computational process in which the brain interprets sensory information in order to detect, discriminate, or identify the source or content of auditory stimuli (Gold and Shadlen 2007 ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4879

The perception of the auditory environment can either be comprehensive or focus on certain details in it. There appear to be two processes running in parallel during perception. A primitive, bottom-up mechanism automatically orders incoming acoustic stimuli via certain acoustic features. The second, top-down mechanism allows us selectively to attend to whichever features we desire (for instance, a certain pitch, location, time interval, or frequency range). In general, we can focus our attention only on one detail at any one time, although by switching rapidly and by using our short-term auditory memory we can attend to a few targets at the same time. Simultaneously, the top-down processing parses the details and organizes the auditory environment as a whole and tries to focus on some new details for active monitoring. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1321

Categorization

• DEFINE: Two-stream model of auditory perception: automatic bottom-up ordering plus selective top-down attention.
• XREF: Parallels visual attention models (e.g. Treisman’s feature integration theory) and cocktail-party effect literature. — connects to: The auditory cortex can fabricate sounds indistinguishable from real perception — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2288; Attention shapes what a listener perceives as loud in complex soundscapes; Sound perception is a constructive act mediated by memory, association, and social role — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 950 (+1 more)
• corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1321; Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4879

Broader Connections

• Attention shapes what a listener perceives as loud in complex soundscapes #exemplifies (0.78)