The long-term goal of this project is to understand how human listeners learn to better discriminate sounds. The particular objective of the proposed experiments is to test and refine a conceptual working model of learning on basic auditory tasks. The model predicts how learning to make a discrimination between two given sounds with simple temporal and spectral structures will influence performance on new sounds or new discrimination tasks. The model also predicts how different training schemes will increase or decrease this influence. For example, consistent with preliminary data, the model predicts that listeners who learn to discriminate the frequencies of two tones at one frequency, will behave as though they have not previously learned on that task when tested at a new frequency. To test the assumptions of the model, experiments are proposed to examine how learning to perform one discrimination task with one sound affects subsequent performance on that trained task with untrained sounds, and on untrained tasks with the trained sound. The information gained from this project can be expected to (1) supply baseline information for comparison with learning and generalization on tasks employing more complex sounds such as speech, (2) affect the design of traditional psychoacoustic experiments that do not focus on learning but are nevertheless influenced by it, (3) contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying performance on particular trained tasks, (4) influence the development of therapeutic training schemes for individuals with auditory disorders, (5) inform the investigation of perceptual learning in other sensory systems, and (6) provide insights into the neurobiology of learning and memory.
| Little, David F; Zhang, Yu-Xuan; Wright, Beverly A (2017) Disruption of Perceptual Learning by a Brief Practice Break. Curr Biol 27:3699-3705.e3 |
| Wright, Beverly A; Baese-Berk, Melissa M; Marrone, Nicole et al. (2015) Enhancing speech learning by combining task practice with periods of stimulus exposure without practice. J Acoust Soc Am 138:928-37 |
| Szpiro, Sarit F A; Wright, Beverly A; Carrasco, Marisa (2014) Learning one task by interleaving practice with another task. Vision Res 101:118-24 |
| Baese-Berk, Melissa M; Bradlow, Ann R; Wright, Beverly A (2013) Accent-independent adaptation to foreign accented speech. J Acoust Soc Am 133:EL174-80 |
| Sabin, Andrew T; Clark, Cynthia A; Eddins, David A et al. (2013) Different patterns of perceptual learning on spectral modulation detection between older hearing-impaired and younger normal-hearing adults. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 14:283-94 |
| Sabin, Andrew T; Eddins, David A; Wright, Beverly A (2012) Perceptual learning of auditory spectral modulation detection. Exp Brain Res 218:567-77 |
| Sabin, Andrew T; Eddins, David A; Wright, Beverly A (2012) Perceptual learning evidence for tuning to spectrotemporal modulation in the human auditory system. J Neurosci 32:6542-9 |
| Banai, Karen; Sabin, Andrew T; Wright, Beverly A (2011) Separable developmental trajectories for the abilities to detect auditory amplitude and frequency modulation. Hear Res 280:219-27 |
| Sabin, Andrew T; Hardies, Lauren; Marrone, Nicole et al. (2011) Weighting function-based mapping of descriptors to frequency-gain curves in listeners with hearing loss. Ear Hear 32:399-409 |
| Huyck, Julia Jones; Wright, Beverly A (2011) Late maturation of auditory perceptual learning. Dev Sci 14:614-21 |
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