Music is often described in terms of the structure of repeated phrases. For example, many songs have the form AABA, where each letter represents an instance of a phrase. This research aims to construct descriptions or explanations of music in this form, using only audio recordings as input. A system of programs is described that transcribes the melody of a recording, identifies similar segments...

Dual-task studies assessed the effects of cellular-phone conversations on performance of a simulated driving task. Performance was not disrupted by listening to radio broadcasts or listening to a book on tape. Nor was it disrupted by a continuous shadowing task using a handheld phone, ruling out, in this case, dual-task interpretations associated with holding the phone, listening, or speaking, ...

Seniors often have more difficulty understanding speech than younger adults, particularly in noisy environments. While loss in peripheral hearing sensitivity explains many of the listening problems of elderly persons, age-related declines in general cognitive skill and central auditory processing also appear to contribute. In this article, we focus primarily on the effects of age on central aud...

Diversity in recommendation lists or sets has shown to be an important feature in recommender systems as it can counteract on negative effects such as choice difficulty and choice overload. However, how much diversity a recommendation list needs to provide is not clearly defined. By analyzing music listening behavior of listeners in 47 countries, we show that diversity needs may be cultural dep...

The Modified Rhyme Test (MRT), recorded using natural speech and two forms of synthetic speech, DECtalk and Votrax, was used to measure both open-set and closed-set speechrecognition performance. Performance of hearing-impaired elderly listeners was compared to two groups of young normal-hearing adults, one listening in quiet, and the other listening in a background of spectrally shaped noise d...

The acceptable range of speech level as a function of background noise level was investigated on the basis of word intelligibility scores and listening difficulty ratings. In the present study, the acceptable range is defined as the range that maximizes word intelligibility scores and simultaneously does not cause a significant increase in listening difficulty ratings from the minimum ratings. ...

The use of computer-based, psychomotor testing systems for personnel selection and classification has gained popularity in the civilian and military worlds in recent years. However, several issues need to be resolved before adopting a computerized, psychomotor test. The purpose of this study was to compare the impact of alternative input devices used for the Test Of Basic Aviation Skills (TBAS)...