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SUMMARY:Time-dependent discrimination advantages for harmonic sounds sugge
 st efficient coding for memory - Paul Bays
DTSTART:20230628T140000Z
DTEND:20230628T150000Z
UID:TALK202753@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Adam Triabhall
DESCRIPTION:This week we will discuss and debate a recent paper by McPhers
 on and McDermott\, published in PNAS (2020).\n\nAbstract: “Perceptual sy
 stems have finite memory resources and must store incoming signals in comp
 ressed formats. To explore whether representations of a sound’s pitch mi
 ght derive from this need for compression\, we compared discrimination of 
 harmonic and inharmonic sounds across delays. In contrast to inharmonic sp
 ectra\, harmonic spectra can be summarized\, and thus compressed\, using t
 heir fundamental frequency (f0). Participants heard two sounds and judged 
 which was higher. Despite being comparable for sounds presented back-to-ba
 ck\, discrimination was better for harmonic than inharmonic stimuli when s
 ounds were separated in time\, implicating memory representations unique t
 o harmonic sounds. Patterns of individual differences (correlations betwee
 n thresholds in different conditions) indicated that listeners use differe
 nt representations depending on the time delay between sounds\, directly c
 omparing the spectra of temporally adjacent sounds\, but transitioning to 
 comparing f0s across delays. The need to store sound in memory appears to 
 determine reliance on f0-based pitch and may explain its importance in mus
 ic\, in which listeners must extract relationships between notes separated
  in time” (McPherson & McDermott\, 2020).\n\nReference: McPherson\, M.J.
 \, & McDermott\, J.H. (2020). Time-dependent discrimination advantages for
  harmonic sounds suggest efficient coding for memory. Proceedings of the N
 ational Academy of Sciences (PNAS)\, 117(50)\, 32169–32180. https://doi.
 org/10.1073/pnas.2008956117
LOCATION:Zoom link: www.bayslab.org/craikjc
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