A global study led by Northeastern University professor Jonathan Peelle has confirmed that people's ability to detect background sounds not only varies significantly from person to person but is also influenced by the sounds they heard just before. The findings, published in Royal Society Open Science, validate and expand on a 10-year-old study that had previously suggested this effect using data from just five participants.
To replicate and extend the original research, Peelle coordinated a large-scale collaboration involving 25 laboratories across 10 countries and 149 participants. His motivation stemmed from a desire to better understand how people perceive speech in noisy environments, an area central to his research in communication sciences and disorders.
"This is a fundamental aspect of hearing—how our perception is shaped by the noise around us," said Peelle. "It ties into broader questions about how we understand speech in real-world settings."
While the initial study raised important questions, its small sample size and intense five-hour task left other researchers struggling to replicate its results. Peelle and his team decided that any meaningful replication would need international support. They carefully reviewed the original study, collaborated with its authors to access the exact sounds and code used, and ensured that every experimental detail—down to the response buttons—was faithfully reproduced.
After verifying the setup, they issued an open call for labs worldwide to participate. The collaborative effort led to a more robust and comprehensive exploration of the phenomenon.
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Participants in the study completed a series of sessions involving sequences of noise that gradually grew louder or softer. After the noise reached a steady level, a beep would occasionally sound, and participants were asked to report when they heard it. The goal was to determine the threshold at which individuals could identify specific sounds amidst background noise.
Peelle explained that this scenario is a simplified model of a real-world situation—like trying to hear a friend speak in a noisy coffee shop. "By understanding how we perceive a simple tone in background noise, we can get clues about the mechanisms our brains use to process more complex speech signals."
The expanded study confirmed the original findings: our perception of sound is indeed shaped by prior auditory context, and individuals differ in how strongly they experience this effect. Some people were much more sensitive to the auditory cues, while others barely registered the shift—findings that could have future applications in clinical diagnostics.
"We now know there's a wide range of perceptual sensitivity to this effect, which could be meaningful in identifying auditory processing differences across individuals," Peelle said.
Beyond the scientific insights, Peelle emphasized the significance of the collaborative approach. "What stood out most to me was how enthusiastic the scientific community was to come together for this," he said. "Coordinating 69 authors across 25 teams was a challenge, but the outcome was a far more rigorous and informative study."