Hearing Science

Question 1

Define psychoacoustics

Answer 1

relationship between acoustic world and our auditory image of this word
or.. how is sound perceived?

Question 2

Weber’s Law

Answer 2

sensory perception; just noticeable difference is proportional to stimulus

Question 3

Fechner

Answer 3

developed experimental methods to measure perception.
- basis of audiogram measurement

Question 4

Helmholtz

Answer 4

physiology is the basis of perception
- invented a resonator that synthesized sound
- he showed that the of musical notes and vowel sounds is a result of their complexity

Question 5

Bell

Answer 5

developing technologies for the telephone
- tools to control & manipulate sound
- masking
- threshold testing

Question 6

describe how history of psychoacoustics has influenced the field of audiology

Question 7

connection between psychoacoustics and audiology/the audiogram

Question 8

concept of threshold in psychoacoustics

Question 9

absolute threshold

Answer 9

softest sound you can hear for a threshold

Question 10

terminal threshold

Answer 10

moment when changes from a perceived as sound to pain (the end point)
- gets so loud it is perceived as pain

Question 11

difference threshold

Answer 11

smallest perceptible different (just noticeable difference), intensity and frequency that you can hear (perceive)

Question 12

dynamic range

Answer 12

area in between
- no hearing loss
-sensorineural hearing loss (age related) the dynamic range would be narrow

Question 13

method of adjustment

Answer 13

opposite of constant stimuli
-give the participant the control, change the limits themselves
- realistic, what the participant experiments in daily life
- barely audible, depending on the experiment
- unreliable; all in the patients hands

Question 14

method of constant stimuli

Answer 14

decide in the beginning; present all of the tones
- levels in random order
- need to have some idea of in general of what there threshold is
- selected values ahead of time
-less biased

Question 15

method of limits

Answer 15

presents a tone where the patient can hear it
- decrease the volume to where they cannot hear it
- cons: patients can learn the pattern really well
- motivated to pass a hearing test

Question 16

modified hughson-westlake down 10 - 5 up

Answer 16

YES - decrease by 10 dB
NO - increase by 5 dB
record level when listener responds to 2 out of 3 beeps at the same level on an ascending run
- quicker improvement of method of limits

Question 17

psychometric function and why is it used

Answer 17

an example of psychometric function for detecting a pure tone in quiet, which illustrates that performance increases with increasing signal level

Question 18

define auditory masking

Answer 18

sounds are more difficult to hear by other sounds
the threshold of one sound is elevated by another sound
- intensity: frequency selectivity worsens with greater intensities
- fluctuations in timing: a fluctuating masker has dips with high SNRs
- frequency: upward spread of masking: low frequency sounds mask high frequency sounds better than the reverse

Question 19

informational masking

Answer 19

presence of other sounds that compete for a listener’s cognitive processing or attention
- confusions (uncertainty) between the signal and masker that originate more centrally in the auditory system
e.g., speech, music, complex auditory scenes

Question 20

energetic masking

Answer 20

traditional peripheral masking

Question 21

released from forward masking

Answer 21

occurs when a sound (the signal) cannot be perceived due to the presence of a preceding sound (the masker)

Question 22

masking relate to the critical band phenomenon

Answer 22

reduced audibility of a sound signal when in the presence of a second signal of higher intensity within the same critical band

Question 23

how is masking used in audiology

Answer 23

introduction to noise to the non-test ear during a pure tone audiogram
-aims to ensure that the test ear hears the presented tone and is not ‘cross-heard’ by the non-test ear

Question 24

define loudness