introduction

Question 1

what are the two main subfields of hearing science

Answer 1

physiological acoustics

psychoacoustics

Question 1

what is physiological acoustics

Answer 1

the study of the function of structures within an organism that are involved in hearing (mostly with animals)

Question 2

what is pyschoacoustics

Answer 2

the relation between sound and how it is perceived

Question 3

what are important applications of animal studies

Answer 3

the effects of prescription drugs on hearing

the design of a replacement cochlea

Question 4

what are the practical applications of pyschoacoustics

Answer 4

examining infant hearing
knowing the processing limitations of person’s with hearing loss
knowing the properties of sound that are important for conveying high quality (music)
examining theories of learning and detection (application for diagnosis and treatment)

Question 5

Decibels are meaningless without a…

Answer 5

reference

Question 6

If a sound is equivalent to the reference then…

Answer 6

it is equivalent to 0 dB

it does not mean there is no sound

Question 7

smaller than the reference:

• negative value
• positive value

Answer 7

negative value

Question 8

bigger than the reference:

• negative value
• postive value

Answer 8

positive value

Question 9

What are the references for dB (what’s the most prominent)

Answer 9

pascals: sound in an environment

watt/cm^2: intensity

normal hearing: what shows up on an audiogram

input spectrum**

Question 10

What is a decibel

Answer 10

the measure of sound per something else

tells us how much change is happening relative to the reference

Question 11

what is a filter

Answer 11

device that selectively attenuates different frequencies

Question 12

what does attenuate mean

Answer 12

reduce the force, effect, or value of

Question 13

Low-pass filter

Answer 13

allow any input at a frequency below a cut off frequency to pass to its output attenuated or even amplified

Question 14

high-pass filter

Answer 14

allow signals above a cutoff frequency to pass attenuated or even amplified

Question 15

band pass filter

Answer 15

allow frequencies in a particular range to pass attenuated or even amplified

can be created by combining low-pass and high-pass filters to be combined in series

Question 16

notch or band reject filter

Answer 16

attenuates frequencies between two cut off frequencies and allows all other frequencies to pass attenuated or even amplified

Question 17

What is a transfer function

Answer 17

output spectrum minus the input spectrum in dB

more intuitive to think of as a frequency response

X-axis = frequency (Hz)
Y-axis = dB

Question 18

What does time invariance mean

Answer 18

time plays no role in determining the output

measurements at different times will be the same

Question 19

What does linearity mean

Answer 19

input changed by a certain factor will cause the output to change by the same factor, but otherwise it is unaltered

amplify the input by a factor of 2, the output is increased by a factor of 2

Question 20

The output of 2 or more inputs applied at the same time results in a sum of what

Answer 20

a sum of the outputs that would have been obtained if the inputs had been applied separately

Question 21

What is the difference between linear system, linear system attenuator, and linear system amplifier

Answer 21

linear system: pure tone, output and input are identical

attenuator: still a pure tone, but half as big for the output

amplifier: still a pure tone, but output is twice as big

Question 22

What is bottom up processing

Answer 22

process of using available information to collect a group of details before constructing a general pattern

difficult to see the big picture

Question 23

What is top down processing

Answer 23

Using prior information in order to make assumptions about the stimulus