Willliam P. Shofner

A.B., Indiana University-Northwest, 1977
M.S., University of Illinois, 1979
Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1983
Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine

Research Interests

My research interests are is concerned with the mechanisms in which complex sounds are processed in the mammalian auditory system. The research involves both animal psychophysical and neurophysiological studies. Currently, we are interested in the temporal processing of complex sounds, particularly complex tones and iterated rippled noises, as related to the perception of pitch. I also serve as an Associate Editor, Physiological Acoustics, for the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

Representative Publications

Riggs, L.C., Shofner, W.P., Shah, A.R., Young, M.R., Hain, T.C., and Matz, G.J. (1999). Ototoxicity resulting from combined administration of metronidazole and gentamicin. American Journal of Otology , 20: 430-434.

Shofner, W.P. (1999). Responses of cochlear nucleus units in the chinchilla to iterated rippled noises: Analysis of neural autocorrelograms. Journal of Neurophysiology , 81: 2662-2674.

Shofner, W.P. (2000). Comparison of frequency discrimination thresholds for complex and single tones in chinchillas. Hearing Research , 149: 106-114.

Shofner, W.P. and Selas, G. (2002). Pitch strength and Stevens' Power Law. Perception & Psychophysics , 64: 437-450.

Yost, W.A. and Shofner (2002). Auditory imaging. In: Genetics and the Function of the Auditory System , (L. Tranebjaerg, J. Christensen-Dalsgaard, T. Andersen, and T. Poulsen (eds). Holmens Trykkeri, Denmark, pp. 353-373.

Shofner, W.P. (2002). Perception of the periodicity strength of complex sounds by the chinchilla. Hearing Research , 173: 69-81.

Shofner, W.P., Sparks, K., Wu, Y.E., and Pham, E. (2005). Similarity of spectral resolvability in chinchillas and human listeners based on phase discrimination. Acoustic Research Letters Online, 6 : 35-40.

Shofner, W.P. (2005). Comparative aspects of pitch perception. In: Pitch Perception ( Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, Vol. 24), C.J. Plack, A.J. Oxenham, R.R. Fay, and A.N. Popper (eds), pp. 56-98.

Yost, W.A., Mapes-Riordan, D., Dye, R., Sheft, S., and Shofner, W. (2005). Discrimination of first- and second-order regular intervals from random intervals as a function of highpass filter cutoff frequency . Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 117 : 59-62.

Yost, W.A., Mapes-Riordan, D., Shofner, W., Dye, R., and Sheft, S. (2005). Pitch strength of regular-interval click trains with different length “runs” of regular intervals . Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 117: 3054-3068.

Shofner, W.P., Whitmer, W.M., and Yost, W.A. (2005). Listening experience with iterated rippled noise alters the perception of ‘pitch' strength of complex sounds in the chinchilla. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America , 118 : 3187-3197.

Shofner, W.P. and Whitmer, W.M. (2006). Pitch cue learning in chinchillas: The role of spectral region in the training stimulus. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 120: 1706-1712.

Shofner, W.P., Yost, W.A., and Whitmer, W.M. (In Press). Pitch perception in chinchillas: Stimulus generalization using rippled noise. Journal of Comparative Psychology.