Hearing & Language

Question 1

What are the most interesting problems in auditory perception?

4 points

Answer 1

• perceptual basis of harmony
• recognition of voices
• separating signal sources
• influence of experience and knowledge

Question 2

What is misophonia?

Answer 2

a strong negative reaction from hearing specific human sounds

Question 3

The nature of sound

Answer 3

A sound source is emitting (repeated) circular pressure waves (shells of air compression) i.e. a tuning fork → waves are similar to dropping a pebble into a still pond

Question 4

properties of sound waves: what is a pure tone represented by?

Answer 4

A pure tone is represented by a sinewave (air pressure as function of space/time)

Question 5

What is frequency the measure of?

Answer 5

pitch

Question 6

how to measure frequency?

Answer 6

1/period, measured in Hz = cycles per second

Question 7

What is amplitude the measure of?

Answer 7

loudness

Question 8

what do notes of a musical score?

+ 2 points

Answer 8

the keys on the piano:
- frequency generated
- pitch of a musical tone

Question 9

how are keys arranged on a piano/keyboard?

Answer 9

in the order of rising frequency of the musical tone generated

Question 10

what are harmonic intervals?

Answer 10

The distance between two pitches that are sounded together at the same time

Question 11

what are harmonic intervals determined by?

Answer 11

the characteristic frequency ratios

Question 12

what is superposition of waves?

Answer 12

when two or more waves travel through the same medium at the same time

Question 13

what happens to the waveform when you superimpose pure tones ?

Answer 13

more complex sounds: chords, consonance, dissonance, vowels

Question 14

what are musical tones combinations of?

Answer 14

pure tones: fundamental (determines pitch) + harmonic frequencies (determine timbre)

Question 15

what is white noise?

Answer 15

the superposition of many tones with random amplitude and frequency

Question 16

what is a transducer?

Answer 16

a device that changes energy from one form to another

Question 17

is the human ear a transducer?

Answer 17

yes - it changes sound waves into neural signals

Question 18

what is the outer ear?

Answer 18

a directional microphone

Question 19

what is the order of hearing?

Answer 19

outer ear, middle ear, inner ear

Question 20

what is the function of the outer ear?

Answer 20

directional microphone

Question 21

what is the function of the middle ear?

Answer 21

impedance matching, overload protection

Question 22

what is the function of the inner ear?

Answer 22

frequency analysis, neural encoding

Question 23

what is extreme sensitivity?

Answer 23

absolute threshold at sound levels that generate eardrum vibrations - 0.1 nm (H20)

Question 24

what is frequency masking?

Answer 24

when the perception of a sound is affected and covered by another distracting the ear

Question 25

what is a systematic variation?

Answer 25

anomaly or inaccuracy in observations which are the result of factors which are not under statistical control

Question 26

how is perceived loudness measured?

Answer 26

perceived loudness is measured by comparing successively presented tones (or different frequency)

Question 27

the intensity of comparison tone is adjusted until...

Answer 27

The same 'subjective' loudness is matched to the reference tone

Question 28

comparing many frequencies ->

Answer 28

curves of an equal loudness

Question 29

what is physical intensity recorded as?

Answer 29

physical intensity (SPL = sound pressure level) is recorded as 'perceived loudness'

Question 30

what is an audiogram?

Answer 30

a graph that shows the softest sounds a person can hear at different frequencies or pitches

Question 31

what happens if you combine loudness and frequency detection in full audiogram?

Answer 31

loudness comparison as function of frequency (20Hz – 20 KHz)

Question 32

what is an equal loudness contour?

Answer 32

a measure of sound pressure over a spectrum of frequencies, perceived as being equally loud to the hearer when expressed as a pure, constant tone

Question 33

what are equal loudness contours determined by?

Answer 33

by matching the perceived intensity of tone pairs at various base intensities

Question 34

how many decibels is danger level?

Answer 34

90 dB & 100 dB

Question 35

how many decibels that are a risk to our hearing?

Answer 35

120 dB

Question 36

how many decibels is pain level?

Answer 36

140 dB

Question 37

what kind of sounds are mainly in the lower frequency region?

Answer 37

vowel sounds are mainly im the lower frequency region

Question 38

what is presbycusis?

Answer 38

presbycusis is a selective high-frequency hearing loss with age (ongoing)

Question 39

what can noise exposure lead to?

Answer 39

noise exposure can lead to temporary threshold shifts (auditory fatigue) and permanent (partial) deafness

Question 40

What is tinnitus?

Answer 40

tinnitus is a continuous humming or ringing which leads to suppression

Question 41

what is a melody?

Answer 41

a sequence of tones in time, such as simple a chord

Question 42

what do scientists use to display and analyse real sounds?

Answer 42

spectrograms or sonograms: frequency as function of time

Question 43

what does the chord show?

Answer 43

the schematic spectrogram as sequence of different fundamental & harmonic frequency clusters

Question 44

what is a spectrogram?

Answer 44

A spectrogram visually displays the strength of a signal over time at a waveform’s various frequencies

Question 45

what is a sonogram?

Answer 45

imaging method that uses sound waves to produce images of structures within your body

Question 46

what does each spoken word generate?

Answer 46

a complex pattern of frequency and intensity (spectrum), which is modulated as function of time

Question 47

what are complex patterns of frequency recorded as?

Answer 47

spectrogram (time, frequency, intensity) and waveform envelope (microphone)

Question 48

extracting meaning from sound flow diagram

Answer 48

Question 49

Where is Broca's area?

Answer 49

in the frontal lobe

Question 50

what is the Broca's areas function?

Answer 50

speech production (patient 'Tan')

Question 51

where is Wernicke's area?

Answer 51

in the temporal lobe

Question 52

what is the Wernicke's areas function?

Answer 52

fluent aphasia (phrases without meaning)

Question 53

what kind of sensor is the ear?

Answer 53

1D

Question 54

what is sound localisation?

Answer 54

the ability to tell the direction from which a sound is originating

Question 55

what is the pinnae?

Answer 55

the external part of an ear

Question 56

why is the pinnae important?

Answer 56

its crucial for sensation of space (earphones) and to locate elevation

Question 57

what is inter-aural

Answer 57

time differences in arrival time of a sound between two ears

Question 58

why is inter-aural important?

Answer 58

processes to find azimuth (left-right) of sound source:

Question 59

what is an intensity difference?

Answer 59

an acoustic 'shadow' of the head

Question 60

what are temporal or phase differences?

Answer 60

inter-aural delays of 10 - 650 µsec

Question 61

what is the cocktail party effect?

Answer 61

refers to the ability of people to focus on a single talker or conversation in a noisy environment

Question 62

how can the cocktail party effect be achieved?

Answer 62

by masking: the detection of a tone is impaired if another tone or noise is presented at the same time. This depends on proximity in space and similarity in frequency composition

Question 63

what is binaural unmasking?

Answer 63

spatial distance and difference in frequency support separation < difference between ears

Question 64

what are high-level effects

Answer 64

attention, familiarity of voice, language & sensory fusion