Principles of Auditory Stream Segregation

Toneness Principle: Strong auditory images are evoked when tones have high virtual pitch weights. [Translation: clear tones have harmonic spectra & are centered near D4]

Tonal Fusion Principle: The independence of concurrent tones is weakened when their pitch relations conform to simple integer frequency ratios (e.g. unisons, octaves).

Pitch Proximity Principle: Auditory streams are most coherent when successive pitches are close.

Pitch Co-modulation Principle: Similar pitch motion contributes to the fusion of concurrent tones.

Onset Synchrony Principle: Tones that have synchronous onsets are more likely to fuse.

Principle of Limited Density: Tracking streams becomes more difficult when the number exceeds three.

(There are other principles as well.)

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References: Bozzi & Vicario (1960), Bregman (1990), Bregman, Abramson, Doehring & Darwin (1985), Bregman, & Campbell (1971), Bregman, & Pinker (1978), Bregman, & Doehring (1984), Ciocca, & Bregman (1987), Deutsch (1975), DeWitt & Crowder (1987), Dowling (1967), Fitzgibbons, Pollatsek & Thomas (1974), Hartmann & Johnson (1991), Heise & Miller (1951), Helmholtz (1863/1878), Huron (1987), Huron (1989a), Huron (1989b), Huron (1989c), Huron (1991a), Huron (1991b), Huron (1991c), Huron (1992), Huron (1993a), Huron (1993b), Huron (1993c), Huron (1994), Huron (1997), Huron & Fantini (1989), McAdams (1982), van Noorden (1971), Norman (1967), Petter (1957), Semal & Demany (1990), Warren, Obusek & Ackroff (1972), Wright (1986), Zwicker, Flottorp & Stevens (1957), and many others.