ABSTRACT A series of experiments aims to close the theoretical and empirical gap between knowledge about the perception of simple acoustic stimuli and knowledge about the perception of complex, structured speech and music stimuli. One major goal of the research is to identify the principles which may govern the perception of all complex acoustic stimuli. A second goal is to develop several new procedures which will allow for a direct evaluation of specific processing abilities and strategies. Use of these procedures in the proposed research will either validate conclusions from previous research, or will provide a better understanding of the exact nature of specific underlying processes. The third, related goal of the research is to evaluate the role played by general acoustic perceptual principles in the perception of speech and music; identifying for general and specific modes of processing either (1) common processing principles or (2) the exact nature of differences in processing principles.
