Computational modelling of auditory streaming phenomena

Abstract
A computer model is described that uses simple physiological principles that operate mainly at a peripheral level to account for perceptual coherence among successive pure tones of changing frequency. Using a single set of parameter values, the model is able to reproduce a number of fundamental auditory streaming phenomena. These include the build-up of auditory stream segregation over time, and the temporal coherence and fission boundaries of human listeners. Whereas these streaming phenomena are generally accounted for in terms of a high-level auditory scene-analysis process, the success of the model in reproducing experimental data obtained from humans justifies the potential value of a low-level analysis for explaining auditory grouping phenomena, and suggests that some auditory grouping may be the product of low-level auditory processing.