intro to hearing

Question 1

Frequency

Answer 1

Number of pressure cycles per second at one point in space

Question 2

Wavelength

Answer 2

Distance between one peak and the next

Question 3

Comparison with light

Answer 3

Sound transmission from place to place can cause discernible delays
Perception of different frequencies more significant for hearing

Question 4

Sound ripples like water

Answer 4

Spherical waves of sound coming from a source

Question 5

Pitch

Answer 5

Frequency

Question 6

Loudness

Answer 6

Amplitude, intensity, sound level

Question 7

What is a decibel…

Answer 7

Faintest sound you can hear is 20 micro pascals, that is the definition of 0 decibels

Question 8

Detectable frequency ranges for different species

Answer 8

Human can hear 20-20000 Hz
Cats and dogs can hear better than us
Fish can hear things

Question 9

Detection threshold at different frequencies - dynamic range

Answer 9

Range between the most faint thing and loudest thing is called the dynamic range

Question 10

Loudness

Answer 10

Does not increase in proportion with either sound amplitude or intensity
Decibels are a doubling of loudness rather than an increment

Question 11

Magnitude estimation of loudness - Hartmann (1993)

Answer 11

Listener assigns numbers to the loudness of each sound (a broadband noise) which varies in level, compared to a reference of 100
Very good at getting an average slope of 0.22 compared to the average of 0.3
Shows we can estimate loudness very well

Question 12

Equal loudness contours

Answer 12

Same curve as absolute threshold curves
At 100 hertz you need than more than 40 decibels to match a 40 decibel tone at 1 hertz

Question 13

Complex tones

Answer 13

More complicated wave forms happen when different wave forms get added
A single object and the air can vibrate at different frequencies simultaneously

Question 14

Spectrogram

Answer 14

Darkness of the lines is the intensity of the wave
Able to see the structure of the sound and how it changes