Recent research in the field of audition.

Abstract

A considerable amount of interest still appears to be shown in the experimental work carried on among psychologists and their kinsmen in the neighboring fields of physiology, pathology, physics and electrical engineering. So strong is this interest and so productive are the experimental researches that the reviewer is sure of the increased returns which would accrue if some central organization for the exchange of facts and theories were to be set up. This has been accomplished in some measure by the organization of the Acoustical Society of America, but so far its membership is not yet representative of the widest interests in this field. The first issue of its quarterly Journal has made a very real contribution, however, and much good will follow. Within the space limits necessarily assigned to this article it is impossible to do anything more than to sketch in the picture of productivity which is going on in this country and abroad. Many of the papers are presented in such generally inaccessible journals that they were unknown even to the reviewer until he set about the task of summarizing the important acoustic events of the last two years since the preceding summary was published (60).Theory of Audition. The tendency now seems to swing somewhat away from a modified Young-Helmholtzian theory of analysis by sympathetic resonance and to emphasize for the moment some form of central function, not that practically all of the facts of analysis are relegated to the cerebrum, but that some form of synthesis can only be ascribed to those centers where such organization is neurologically possible. The increasing significance of Gestalt in psychology and the neurological correlate of the engram or equivalent form of configuration seems to be a more suitable explanation of our outstanding ability to detect simple tones in a very complex clang. This form of explanation comes from several different directions. We have, for example, the outstanding work of Trimble (73) in the field of sound localization together with his contributions to auditory theory (72). He has raised the question 271 272 CHRISTIAN A. RUCKMICK

Psychology of music.

“…Ruckmick (178,179,180,181) contributes a series of important bibliographical summaries dealing in part with music psychology. Howes (81) considers gregariousness in connection with music, the psychology of audience and performer, and applause, among other topics.…”

A critical review of the field of audition.

“…This paper constitutes the fifth of a series of critical summaries in the field of audition which the writer has published in a period of a decade and a half (29)(30)(31)(32). Since the last of these reviews appeared over five years ago, any attempt to make this survey as comprehensive as the preceding ones would require much more space than is now available.…”

“…Among the clinical and post mortem studies which bear on the several theories of audition are those of Bunch and Wolff (44, ' 415 pp. [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Although cautiously stated, the conclusions reached stand in favor of the possibility of some form of hearing without the functioning of the organ of Corti.…”