Hearing

Question 1

What is audition?

Answer 1

-the sense of hearing

Question 2

What is the stimulus for a sound?

Answer 2

-a wave of pressure created when an object vibrates (or when compressed air releases)

Question 3

What happens when a wave of pressure is created?

Answer 3

-molecules in a transmitting substance move together and apart

Question 4

Define: the transmitting substances of pressure waves

Answer 4

-air, water, or solids

Question 5

What are the 3 psychological dimensions of auditory experience?

Answer 5

• loudness
• pitch
• timbre

Question 6

Define: loudness (psychological dimension of auditory experience)

Answer 6

• related to intensity of pressure wave
• corresponds to wave amplitude
• measured in decibels

Question 7

What is the average absolute threshold of hearing?

Answer 7

-0 decibels

Question 8

Explain: how decibels are not equidistant

Answer 8

-every 10 decibels, there is a tenfold increase in sound intensity

Question 9

Define: Pitch (psychological dimension of auditory experience)

Answer 9

-related to frequency of pressure wave
-number of times the wave cycles through a peak and low point per second
- measured in hertz (Hz)
(1 cycle/second is 1 hertz (Hz))

Question 10

Define: timbre (psychological dimension of auditory experience)

Answer 10

-the distinguishing quality of sound
-related to complexity of pressure wave
-the breadth of range of frequencies that make up the wave
(a single frequency of sound is extremely rare in nature)

Question 11

Define: white noise

Answer 11

-when all the frequencies of the sound spectrum occur simultaneously

Question 12

What sections are the ear divided into?

Answer 12

• outer section
• middle section
• inner section

Question 13

What is the function of the outer ear? (the soft funnel-shape we can see)

Answer 13

-designed to collect sound waves, but our hearing would still be good without it

Question 14

What is the actual organ of hearing?

Answer 14

-organ of Corti

Question 15

Where is the organ of Corti located?

Answer 15

-inside the cochlea

Question 16

What are the receptor cells for hearing, that are inside the organ of Corti?

Answer 16

-bristle-like (hair cells), topped by tiny bristles, (clia)

Question 17

Brief exposure to extremely loud noises, or prolonged exposure to moderate noises can damage the hair cells. Is hair cell damage curable?

Answer 17

-hair cell damage is currently irreversible

Question 18

What rubbery material stretches across the interior of the cochlea, and embeds hair cells in place?

Answer 18

-basilar membrane

Question 19

What does the basilar membrane do?

Answer 19

-waves of fluid, caused by pressure in the cochlea, push on the basilar membrane, causing it to move in a wave-like fashion also

Question 20

There is another membrane ABOVE the hair cells. What is its purpose?

Answer 20

• basilar membrane movement causes hair cells to rise and fall. Their tips brush against this membrane and bend.
• this causes hair cells to initiate a signal that gets passed to the auditory nerve

Question 21

What does the auditory nerve do?

Answer 21

-sends messages to the brain

Question 22

What allows us to hear different sounds?

Answer 22

• the pattern of hair cell movement determines which neurons fire, how rapid they fire
• pattern of hair cell movement is affected by how the basilar membrane moves

(different frequencies lead to different neural codes)

Question 23

How are high pitch and low pitch sounds discriminated?

Answer 23

high pitch
-where activity occurs on the basilar membrane

low pitch
-frequency of the basilar membranes’s vibration

Question 24

what initiates nerve impulses for sound?

Answer 24

-hair cells

Question 25

What gestalt principles apply to hearing?

Answer 25

• proximity
• closure
• continuity
• similarity

Question 26

What is a cue for distance of sound?

Answer 26

-loudness

Question 27

How do we locate direction of sound?

Answer 27

-with our 2 ears