Auditory search asymmetry

Auditory search tasks were given to examine serial and parallel processing in auditory perception. The time required to detect a frequency modulated (FM) sound was hardly affected by the number of destructive pure tones. However, the search time for a pure tone was increased with the number of FM sounds. The same results were obtained when the pure tones were presented In conjunction with amplitude modulated (AM) sounds as well as with band noises. These results indicate that the auditory system is also mediated by pre-attentive and attentive processes