Perceptual organization of nine-element auditory temporal patterns

Abstract

All possible basic patterns formed from repeating sequences of nine dichotomous elements were presented auditorily, and Ss were required to describe the sequence after it became heard as an organized pattern. These descriptions show that whenever a particular pattern is a preferred organization, so also is its temporal reversal, whether that temporal reversal occurs in the same or in another basic pattern. Thus, it is argued that the pattern organizations are wholistic. The major organizational priniciples are: preference for (a) patterns that are balanced in time with long runs at the ends, and (b) patterns that have a directional simplicity with run lengths either increasing or decreasing in a regular order. Variability of pattern organization is related to the number of runs in the sequence, the range of run lengths represented, and the availability of a preferred organizing principle. It is concluded that the organism selects a pattern or organization from a set of alternatives presented by the structural features mentioned, and that this organizational selection is made on the basis of the whole pattern, not on parts of it built up sequentially. © 1970 Psychonomic Society, Inc.