ABSTRACT
In a complex environment with many simultaneous sounds, auditory perception seems to be strongly affected by heuristic processes that try to “parse” the acoustic input and recover the combination of acoustic components contributed by each separate source of sound. These heuristics tend to follow principles described by Gestalt psychology. Their operation is well described by the notions of similarity, proximity, simplicity, good continuation, competition of organizations (belongingness), and common fate. The processes of judgment and pattern recognition seem to apply most easily when the elements upon which these processes operate have been grouped into the same perceptual stream by the “parsing” heuristics.
