Knowledge acquisition by listeners in a source learning task using physical models
Gary P. Scavone, Stephen Lakatos, Perry R. Cook · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2000
Two experiments examined listeners’ ability to learn about the acoustic properties of physical models by varying the amount of structured information listeners received about the models. In experiment 1, 60 listeners participated in a repeated learning-testing paradigm, using a graphical interface to permit listeners to manipulate three acoustic properties for each of eight simulated percussive instruments. Information about the properties of the instruments varied across six conditions, ranging from highly structured (e.g., pictures of instruments, description of physical properties, sliders grouped by instrument with properties labeled) to weakly structured (e.g., unlabeled sliders arranged randomly without reference to instruments). Performance on discrimination and memory tasks suggests that learning can occur even with weakly structured acoustic information. To determine whether learning can occur even when acoustic information is obtained ‘‘passively,’’ 30 listeners in experiment 2 were yoked to listeners in three conditions of experiment 1. These former listeners heard sounds produced by the manipulations of listeners in experiment 1, but were unaware of the nature of the information in the physical model interface. Both experiments suggest that mechanisms associated with acquiring knowledge about acoustic properties may be largely automatic.