PSY 131 Final Flashcards
Periodicity
the # of cycle of a pure (sine) tone that occur over a given length of time
Partial
a general term that can apply to any mode of vibration in a spectrum
Temporal envelope
the primary determinant in our classification of sound sources
… Why did the transposed version of the scale sound so unnatural?
the natural resonant frequency regions that were produced by the sound source were not preserved by the transpositional process
A distortion product is…
characterized by the introduction of frequency components in the output that were not present in the input
Human sensitivity to frequencies from about 1.5-7 kHz is due to…
the resonant frequencies of the outer and middle ear
the basilar membrane…
separates out via a “traveling” wave, the frequency components of a sound wave
the scala media is…
a canal filled with endolymph that extends along the cochlea
Frequency selectivity
the ability of the auditory system to resolve or separate out the different frequency components of a sound wave
Iso-level curve
Basilar membrane response as a function of the frequency of a pure tone for various levels of the tone
Tuning Curve
the level of a pure tone needed to produce the same basilar membrane response
Basalward shift
traveling wave must move toward the higher frequency region of the basilar membrane to compensate for the shift to lower-frequency excitation
Motility (outer hair cells)
outer hair cells expand and contract wen stimulated due to protein prestin
Compression (shallow response function
as loudness level increases, gain decreases
Frequency suppression
reduction in response to one frequency component wen another frequency component is added
distortion
frequency components that are not present in the input that are present in the output
Masking
the obscuring of one sound by another
Spectral-notch masking
can be used to estimate the shape and bandwidth of the internal auditory filter
The width of an ERB…
is proportional to its center frequency
The psychophysical tuning curve…
is a plot of the level of a masker needed to mask a signal as a function of the frequency of the masker and masker-signal time interval