Contributions of Envelope Information to Classification of Brief Sounds

Abstract : Listeners were trained to classify a set of sounds into eight categories. Classification was almost as good in subsequent tasks where listeners classified signal envelopes or signals created by modulating a tone with the signal envelopes. Classification of signals created by modulating a tonal complex or broadband noise was markedly worse, probably due to interaction of sidebands from nearby carrier frequencies. These results suggest the importance of envelope cues for aural classification. Further investigation of envelope features and aural sensitivity to these features would further our understanding of aural classification of brief complex sounds.