The teachings herein disclose methods and apparatus that simplify impairment correlation estimation for received signal processing, based on determining, for any given processing interval, which impairment contributors should be considered in the estimation of overall received signal impairment correlations. These simplifications reduce computational processing requirements, allowing reduced circuit complexity and/or reduced operating power, and improve receiver performance. A corresponding transmitter and transmission method include transmitting multiple information streams to targeted receivers according to ongoing scheduling, and controlling the ongoing scheduling to reduce the number of impairment contributors considered in impairment correlation estimation at the targeted receivers. In one embodiment, a receiver identifies which impairment contributors to consider based on receiving control information. In another embodiment, the receiver identifies the impairment contributors to consider based on background processing, e.g., background determination of parametric model fitting parameters for a plurality of impairment contributors, and observing those model fitting parameters over time.