Abstract
Early in the twentieth century, the Gestalt psychologists outlined principles governing the ability of the human visual system to construct integrated percepts of objects in visual scenes. By the close of the twentieth century, ample evidence suggested that the human auditory system follows similar principles of perceptual organization. Several Gestalt principles of grouping—proximity, similarity, common fate, good continuation, and familiarity, govern our ability to decompose complex mixtures of sounds into percepts of auditory objects in acoustic scenes. Auditory objects are perceptual groupings of sounds generated by the same source that are present at different times and in different parts of the frequency spectrum. The ability to form auditory objects likely plays an important role in allowing animals to navigate human-altered soundscapes. This chapter reviews studies of insects, fish, frogs, birds, and nonhuman mammals in which experimenters manipulated potential grouping cues and measured performance on behavioral tasks designed to reveal the animal’s perception of auditory objects. These studies employed techniques ranging from measuring natural behaviors in response to communication signals to operant conditioning of responses to artificial sounds such as pure tones. The totality of the studies reviewed here unequivocally reveals that nonhuman animals not only form auditory objects but that they also follow the Gestalt principles of grouping. These principles and their underlying mechanisms allow animals to perceptually organize the often noisy and complex acoustic environments in which they live.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American National Standards Institute (ANSI). (2013). American National Standard Acoustical Terminology. ANSI S1.1, American National Standards Institute for the Acoustical Society of America, Washington, DC.
Barber, J., Razak, K., & Fuzessery, Z. (2003). Can two streams of auditory information be processed simultaneously? Evidence from the gleaning bat Antrozous pallidus. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 189(11), 843–855.
Baugh, A. T., Ryan, M. J., Bernal, X. E., Rand, A. S., & Bee, M. A. (2016). Female túngara frogs do not experience the continuity illusion. Behavioral Neuroscience, 130(1), 62–74.
Bee, M. A. (2010). Spectral preferences and the role of spatial coherence in simultaneous integration in gray treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 124(4), 412–424.
Bee, M. A. (2012). Sound source perception in anuran amphibians. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 22(2), 301–310.
Bee, M. A. (2015). Treefrogs as animal models for research on auditory scene analysis and the cocktail party problem. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 95(2), 216–237.
Bee, M. A. (2016). Social recognition in anurans. In M. A. Bee & C. T. Miller (Eds.), Psychological Mechanisms in Animal Communication (pp. 169–221). New York: Springer International Publishing.
Bee, M. A., & Klump, G. M. (2004). Primitive auditory stream segregation: A neurophysiological study in the songbird forebrain. Journal of Neurophysiology, 92(2), 1088–1104.
Bee, M. A., & Klump, G. M. (2005). Auditory stream segregation in the songbird forebrain: Effects of time intervals on responses to interleaved tone sequences. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 66(3), 197–214.
Bee, M. A., & Riemersma, K. K. (2008). Does common spatial origin promote the auditory grouping of temporally separated signal elements in grey treefrogs? Animal Behaviour, 76(3), 831–843.
Bee, M. A., & Miller, C. T. (2016). Signaler and receiver psychology. In M. A. Bee & C. T. Miller (Eds.), Psychological Mechanisms in Animal Communication (pp. 1–16). New York: Springer International Publishing.
Bee, M. A., Micheyl, C., Oxenham, A. J., & Klump, G. M. (2010). Neural adaptation to tone sequences in the songbird forebrain: Patterns, determinants, and relation to the build-up of auditory streaming. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 196(8), 543–557.
Benney, K. S., & Braaten, R. F. (2000). Auditory scene analysis in Estrildid finches (Taeniopygia guttata and Lonchura striata domestica): A species advantage for detection of conspecific song. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 114(2), 174–182.
Bizley, J. K., & Cohen, Y. E. (2013). The what, where and how of auditory-object perception. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14(10), 693–707.
Braaten, R. F., & Hulse, S. H. (1993). Perceptual organization of auditory temporal patterns in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Perception & Psychophysics, 54(5), 567–578.
Braaten, R. F., & Leary, J. C. (1999). Temporal induction of missing birdsong segments in European starlings. Psychological Science, 10(2), 162–166.
Bregman, A. (1990). Auditory Scene Analysis: The Perceptual Organization of Sound. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bush, S. L., Gerhardt, H. C., & Schul, J. (2002). Pattern recognition and call preferences in treefrogs (Anura: Hylidae): A quantitative analysis using a no-choice paradigm. Animal Behaviour, 63(1), 7–14.
Carlyon, R. P. (2004). How the brain separates sounds. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(10), 465–471.
Christison-Lagay, K. L., & Cohen, Y. E. (2014). Behavioral correlates of auditory streaming in rhesus macaques. Hearing Research, 309, 17–25.
Darwin, C. J. (2008). Spatial hearing and perceiving sources. In W. A. Yost, A. N. Popper, & R. R. Fay (Eds.), Auditory Perception of Sound Sources (pp. 215–232). New York: Springer US.
Darwin, C. J., & Carlyon, R. P. (1995). Auditory grouping. In B. C. J. Moore (Ed.), The Handbook of Perception and Cognition, Vol. 6: Hearing (pp. 387–424). New York: Academic Press.
Dent, M. L., Martin, A. K., Flaherty, M. M., & Neilans, E. G. (2016). Cues for auditory stream segregation of birdsong in budgerigars and zebra finches: Effects of location, timing, amplitude, and frequency. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 139(2), 674–683.
Dolležal, L.-V., Itatani, N., Gunther, S., & Klump, G. M. (2012). Auditory streaming by phase relations between components of harmonic complexes: A comparative study of human subjects and bird forebrain neurons. Behavioral Neuroscience, 126(6), 797–808.
Elhilali, M., Ma, L., Micheyl, C., Oxenham, A. J., & Shamma, S. A. (2009). Temporal coherence in the perceptual organization and cortical representation of auditory scenes. Neuron, 61(2), 317–329.
Farris, H. E., & Ryan, M. J. (2011). Relative comparisons of call parameters enable auditory grouping in frogs. Nature Communications, 2, 410.
Farris, H. E., & Taylor, R. C. (2016). Mate searching animals as model systems for understanding perceptual grouping. In M. A. Bee & C. T. Miller (Eds.), Psychological Mechanisms in Animal Communication (pp. 89–118). New York: Springer International Publishing.
Farris, H. E., Rand, A. S., & Ryan, M. J. (2002). The effects of spatially separated call components on phonotaxis in túngara frogs: Evidence for auditory grouping. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 60(3), 181–188.
Farris, H., Rand, A. S., & Ryan, M. J. (2005). The effects of time, space and spectrum on auditory grouping in túngara frogs. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 191(12), 1173–1183.
Fay, R. R. (1998). Auditory stream segregation in goldfish (Carassius auratus). Hearing Research, 120(1), 69–76.
Fay, R. R. (2000). Spectral contrasts underlying auditory stream segregation in goldfish (Carassius auratus). Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 1(2), 120–128.
Fay, R. R. (2008). Sound source perception and stream segregation in nonhuman vertebrate animals. In W. A. Yost, A. N. Popper, & R. R. Fay (Eds.), Auditory Perception of Sound Sources (pp. 307–323), New York: Springer US.
Fay, R. R., & Popper, A. N. (2000). Evolution of hearing in vertebrates: The inner ears and processing. Hearing Research, 149(1–2), 1–10.
Fishman, Y. I., Reser, D. H., Arezzo, J. C., & Steinschneider, M. (2001). Neural correlates of auditory stream segregation in primary auditory cortex of the awake monkey. Hearing Research, 151(1), 167–187.
Fishman, Y. I., Arezzo, J. C., & Steinschneider, M. (2004). Auditory stream segregation in monkey auditory cortex: Effects of frequency separation, presentation rate, and tone duration. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 116(3), 1656–1670.
Gerhardt, H. C. (2005). Acoustic spectral preferences in two cryptic species of grey treefrogs: Implications for mate choice and sensory mechanisms. Animal Behaviour, 70(1), 39–48.
Gerhardt, H. C., & Huber, F. (2002). Acoustic Communication in Insects and Anurans: Common Problems and Diverse Solutions. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Gerhardt, H. C., MartĂnez-Rivera, C. C., Schwartz, J. J., Marshall, V. T., & Murphy, C. G. (2007). Preferences based on spectral differences in acoustic signals in four species of treefrogs (Anura: Hylidae). Journal of Experimental Biology, 210(17), 2990–2998.
Goldstein, E. B. (2010). Introduction to perception. In Sensation and Perception (pp. 3–20). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Griffiths, T. D., & Warren, J. D. (2004). What is an auditory object? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5(11), 887–892.
Hartmann, W. M., & Johnson, D. (1991). Stream segregation and peripheral channeling. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 9(2), 155–183.
Hulse, S. H. (2002). Auditory scene analysis in animal communication. Advances in the Study of Behavior, 31, 163–200.
Hulse, S. H., MacDougall-Shackleton, S. A., & Wisniewski, A. B. (1997). Auditory scene analysis by songbirds: Stream segregation of birdsong by European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 111(1), 3–13.
Itatani, N., & Klump, G. M. (2009). Auditory streaming of amplitude-modulated sounds in the songbird forebrain. Journal of Neurophysiology, 101(6), 3212–3225.
Itatani, N., & Klump, G. M. (2011). Neural correlates of auditory streaming of harmonic complex sounds with different phase relations in the songbird forebrain. Journal of Neurophysiology, 105(1), 188–199.
Itatani, N., & Klump, G. M. (2014). Neural correlates of auditory streaming in an objective behavioral task. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(29), 10738–10743.
Izumi, A. (2002). Auditory stream segregation in Japanese monkeys. Cognition, 82(3), B113-B122.
Klump, G. M. (2016). Perceptual and neural mechanisms of auditory scene analysis in the European starling. In M. A. Bee & C. T. Miller (Eds.), Psychological Mechanisms in Animal Communication (pp. 57–88). New York: Springer International Publishing.
Klump, G. M., Fichtel, C., Hamann, I., & Langemann, U. (1999). Filling in the gap: Evidence for apparent continuity in the songbird auditory system. ARO Midwinter Research Meeting, Abstract 108.
Kobayasi, K. I., Usami, A., & Riquimaroux, H. (2012). Behavioral evidence for auditory induction in a species of rodent: Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus). The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 132(6), 4063–4068.
Ma, L., Micheyl, C., Yin, P., Oxenham, A. J., & Shamma, S. A. (2010). Behavioral measures of auditory streaming in ferrets (Mustela putorius). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 124(3), 317–330.
MacDougall-Shackleton, S. A., Hulse, S. H., Gentner, T. Q., & White, W. (1998). Auditory scene analysis by European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris): Perceptual segregation of tone sequences. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 103(6), 3581–3587.
Micheyl, C., & Oxenham, A. J. (2010). Objective and subjective psychophysical measures of auditory stream integration and segregation. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 11(4), 709–724.
Micheyl, C., Carlyon, R. P., Shtyrov, Y., Hauk, O., Dodson, T., & Pullvermüller, F. (2003). The neurophysiological basis of the auditory continuity illusion: A mismatch negativity study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 15(5), 747–758.
Micheyl, C., Tian, B., Carlyon, R. P., & Rauschecker, J. P. (2005). Perceptual organization of tone sequences in the auditory cortex of awake macaques. Neuron, 48(1), 139–148.
Middlebrooks, J. C., & Onsan, Z. A. (2012). Stream segregation with high spatial acuity. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 132(6), 3896–3911.
Middlebrooks, J. C., & Bremen, P. (2013). Spatial stream segregation by auditory cortical neurons. The Journal of Neuroscience, 33(27), 10986–11001.
Miller, C. T., & Bee, M. A. (2012). Receiver psychology turns 20: Is it time for a broader approach? Animal Behaviour, 83(2), 331–343.
Miller, C. T., Dibble, E., & Hauser, M. D. (2001). Amodal completion of acoustic signals by a nonhuman primate. Nature Neuroscience, 4(8), 783–784.
Moss, C. F., & Surlykke, A. (2001). Auditory scene analysis by echolocation in bats. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 110(4), 2207–2226.
Neilans, E. G., & Dent, M. L. (2015a). Temporal coherence for pure tones in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) and humans (Homo sapiens). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 129(1), 52–61.
Neilans, E. G., & Dent, M. L. (2015b). Temporal coherence for complex signals in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) and humans (Homo sapiens). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 129(2), 174–180.
Nityananda, V., & Bee, M. A. (2011). Finding your mate at a cocktail party: Frequency separation promotes auditory stream segregation of concurrent voices in multi-species frog choruses. PLoS ONE, 6(6), e21191.
Noto, M., Nishikawa, J., & Tateno, T. (2016). An analysis of nonlinear dynamics underlying neural activity related to auditory induction in the rat auditory cortex. Neuroscience, 318, 58–83.
Palmer, S. E. (2002). Perceptual organization in vision. In H. Pashler & S. Yantis (Eds.), Stevens’ Handbook of Experimental Psychology, Vol. 1: Sensation and Perception, 3rd ed. (pp. 177–234). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Park, T. J., & Dooling, R. J. (1991). Sound localization in small birds: Absolute localization in azimuth. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 105(2), 125–133.
Petkov, C. I., & Sutter, M. L. (2011). Evolutionary conservation and neuronal mechanisms of auditory perceptual restoration. Hearing Research, 271(1), 54–65.
Petkov, C. I., O’Connor, K. N., & Sutter, M. L. (2003). Illusory sound perception in macaque monkeys. The Journal of Neuroscience, 23(27), 9155–9161.
Petkov, C. I., O’Connor, K. N., & Sutter, M. L. (2007). Encoding of illusory continuity in primary auditory cortex. Neuron, 54(1), 153–165.
Populin, L. C., & Yin, T. C. (1998). Behavioral studies of sound localization in the cat. The Journal of Neuroscience, 18(6), 2147–2160.
Pressnitzer, D., Sayles, M., Micheyl, C., & Winter, I. M. (2008). Perceptual organization of sound begins in the auditory periphery. Current Biology, 18(15), 1124–1128.
Römer, H. (2013). Masking by noise in acoustic insects: Problems and solutions. In H. Brumm (Ed.), Animal Communication and Noise (pp. 33–63). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Scholes, C., Palmer, A. R., & Sumner, C. J. (2015). Stream segregation in the anesthetized auditory cortex. Hearing Research, 328, 48–58.
Schul, J., & Sheridan, R. (2006). Auditory stream segregation in an insect. Neuroscience, 138(1), 1–4.
Schwartz, J. J., & Gerhardt, H. C. (1995). Directionality of the auditory system and call pattern recognition during acoustic interference in the gray treefrog, Hyla versicolor. Auditory Neuroscience, 1, 195–206.
Schwartz, J. J., Huth, K., Jones, S. H., Brown, R., & Marks, J. (2010). Tests for call restoration in the gray treefrog, Hyla versicolor. Bioacoustics, 20, 59–86.
Seeba, F., & Klump, G. M. (2009). Stimulus familiarity affects perceptual restoration in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris). PLoS ONE, 4(6), e5974.
Seeba, F., Schwartz, J. J., & Bee, M. A. (2010). Testing an auditory illusion in frogs: Perceptual restoration or sensory bias? Animal Behaviour, 79(6), 1317–1328.
Selezneva, E., Gorkin, A., Mylius, J., Noesselt, T., Scheich, H., & Brosch, M. (2012). Reaction times reflect subjective auditory perception of tone sequences in macaque monkeys. Hearing Research, 294(1), 133–142.
Shamma, S. A., Elhilali, M., & Micheyl, C. (2011). Temporal coherence and attention in auditory scene analysis. Trends in Neurosciences, 34(3), 114–123.
Stebbins, W. C. (1973) Hearing of old world monkeys (Cercopithecinae). American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 38(2), 357–364.
Sugita, Y. (1997). Neuronal correlates of auditory induction in the cat cortex. Neuroreport, 8(5), 1155–1159.
van Noorden, L. P. A. S. (1975). Temporal Coherence in the Perception of Tone Sequences. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
von Helversen, D. (1984). Parallel processing in auditory pattern recognition and directional analysis by the grasshopper Chorthippus biguttulus L.(Acrididae). Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 154(6), 837–846.
Wagemans, J., Elder, J. H., Kubovy, M., Palmer, S. E., Peterson, M. A., Singh, M., & von der Heydt, R. (2012a). A century of Gestalt psychology in visual perception: I. Perceptual grouping and figure-ground organization. Psychological Bulletin, 138(6), 1172–1217.
Wagemans, J., Feldman, J., Gepshtein, S., Kimchi, R., Pomerantz, J. R., van der Helm, P. A., & van Leeuwen, C. (2012b). A century of Gestalt psychology in visual perception: II. Conceptual and theoretical foundations. Psychological Bulletin, 138(6), 1218–1252.
Warren, R. M. (1970). Perceptual restoration of missing speech sounds. Science, 167(3917), 392–393.
Warren, R. M. (1984). Perceptual restoration of obliterated sounds. Psychological Bulletin, 96(2), 371–383.
Weber, T., & Thorson, J. (1988). Auditory behavior of the cricket. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 163(1), 13–22.
Wisniewski, A. B., & Hulse, S. H. (1997). Auditory scene analysis in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris): Discrimination of song segments, their segregation from multiple and reversed conspecific songs, and evidence for conspecific song categorization. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 111(4), 337–350.
Yao, J. D., Bremen, P., & Middlebrooks, J. C. (2015). Emergence of spatial stream segregation in the ascending auditory pathway. The Journal of Neuroscience, 35(49), 16199–16212.
Yost, W. A., Popper, A. N., & Fay, R. R. (Eds.). (2008) Auditory Perception of Sound Sources. New York: Springer US.
Compliance with Ethics Requirements
Micheal L. Dent declares that she has no conflict of interest.
Mark A. Bee declares that he has no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dent, M.L., Bee, M.A. (2018). Principles of Auditory Object Formation by Nonhuman Animals. In: Slabbekoorn, H., Dooling, R., Popper, A., Fay, R. (eds) Effects of Anthropogenic Noise on Animals. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 66. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8574-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8574-6_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-8572-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-8574-6
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)