Psychoacoustics Flashcards
What is psychoacoustic and the main goal of this science?
The psychology in hearing science. The goal is to investigate how the behavior is resulted from the stimuli.
In psychoacoustics we investigate…
The relationship (F): how the behaviors (Ω) result from the stimuli (S): Ω= F(S), or what is F.
What is the difference between “psychoacoustics” and “Psychophysics”?
Psychacoustics refers to the behavioral consequences of acoustic stimuli, but psychophysics refers to the study of physical stimuli and their interaction with sensory systems.
What are the three properties of sound?
Intensity, frequency contents, temporal pattern
Position of Psychology in neuroscience: (6)
- It is the start and the end point of neuroscience.
- Brain is initially treated like a black box: the concerns are on the input and output: input=stimuli, output=behavioral consequences.
- The black box is then opened to show which brain structures are likely responsible for behavior.
- Hypotheses are proposed to establish F quantitatively.
- Hypotheses are tested, and F is modified via psychological, neurological, molecular experiments, potential mechanisms underneath F is explored
- Theories developed and matured to explain the behaviors and serve people
What are the four functional relationships? (Between S and Ω)
Detection, discrimination, identification, Judging (scaling)
Detection refers to:
determining whether the signal is there or not;
Discrimination is judging:
a difference when two signals are presented
Identification is the ability to:
point out which one is the target signal among other sources
Judging is thought of as:
‘scaling’ in which the response is quantified
What are the corresponding behaviors (Ω) to the sound properties? (4)
Intensity- loudness
Frequency- Pitch
Temporal pattern- Timing
Combination of frequency, and intensity change with time—timbre -Quality
What is considered a high-level process?
Recognition of speech
What are the two big categories for these psychoacoustic studies?
Analytic and Individual
What is the difference between analytic and individual?
Analytic refers to the roles of the individual acoustic parameters (intensity, frequency, and temporal patterns)
Integrative studies look at how the integration of individual parameters relates to our perception.
What is an example of analytic study?
Analytic: how the acoustic parameters are discriminated, identified, and scaled.
What is an example for integration studies? (5)
- Sound localization tasks
- Notion of ‘timbre’
- Integration of frequency components
- Intensity and temporal patterns”
- Auditory perception tasks
Define integration.
It is the process of neurons across different auditory channels, different types of neurons, and different nuclei, excitation versus inhibition, afferent versus efferent.”
What is the difference between a ‘top-down’ and bottom up’ process as it relates to the auditory system?
Top-down means how the experience and knowledge affect what we hear and bottom-up is how what we hear and pick up (the physical feature of sound) affects the perception.
Auditory perception: (2)
- Acoustic image in the complex sound field
- Involves top-down process (experience and knowledge already stored)
What is another word for ‘limen’?
Threshold
What are the three dimensions of auditory ability?
Absolute limen (Detection), Terminal limen, Difference limen (Discrimination)
What is the difference between the three dimensions of auditory ability? (3)
- Absolute limen: lower boundary of detection (i.e. minimum or sensitivity)
- Terminal limen: upper boundary of detection (i.e. maximum or limitation)
- Difference limen: the smallest change in some aspect of the stimulus which can be detected
What is sensitivity as it relates to hearing thresholds?
Absolute thresholds to sound intensity/pressure—the basic target of hearing evaluation (what we do in audiology audiogram)
What are minimum audibility curves?
The sensitivity across frequency range.
What is the frequency range of hearing?
20 to 20000Hz
What is the terminal threshold?
The upper limit also known as the threshold of discomfort/ threshold of pain
What is the dynamic range of hearing?
The threshold between the terminal and minimum audibility curve.
Why do we call it dynamic range?
It is “dynamic” considering the loudness changes as a result of sound level changes
What is loudness?
Loudness is the perception of sound strength, mainly related to sound level, but also changed by many other factors, such as frequency, duration, the existence of other signals, and tested behaviorly