Is a common grouping mechanism involved in the phenomena of illusory continuity and stream segregation?

Two auditory phenomena-stream segregation and illusory continuity through a wide-band noise interruption-were studied to determine whether the same pr inciples of perceptual organization applied to both. A cycle was formed of a repeating alternation of two short bursts of narrow-band noise (NBN), one centered at a high frequency (H) and the other at a low frequency (L), wit h shorter bursts of wide-band noise (WBN) inserted between successive NBNs (H WBN L WBN H WBN...). In some conditions, listeners could hear a single N BN moving up and down behind the WBN bursts, although there was no NBN pres ent with the WBN. Listeners rated the strength of this illusory continuity. Center frequency separation, rate of onsets, and bandwidth of the NBNs wer e varied. Increases in values of all three variables decreased illusory con tinuity. Other listeners rated the stream segregation of the H and L bands when successive NBNs were separated either by WBN bursts (as above) or by s ilences. The same three acoustic variables were manipulated. Increases in a ll three variables decreased the perception of a single stream. The similar disruptive effects on illusory continuity and on the one-stream percept in the stream segregation task support the idea that both phenomena depend on a common preliminary process of linking together the parts of a sequence t hat have similar frequencies.