psychoacoustics

Question 1

psychoacoustics

Answer 1

psychological aspects of acoustics & hearing

Question 2

detection

Answer 2

is there a sound or not

Question 3

discrimination

Answer 3

is there a difference between 2 sounds

Question 4

absolute thresholds

Answer 4

detection

what is the lowest level of sound you can detect

Question 5

difference thresholds

Answer 5

discrimination

what is the smallest difference between sounds you can tell apart

Question 6

method of constant stimuli

Answer 6

predetermine a few stimuli
(tones at a few different levels or tones differing by 1, 2… dB)

present all stimuli multiple times in a random order
(was the sound hear or what was the difference heard)

Question 7

psychometric funtion

Answer 7

method of constant stimuli

y axis: % correct

x axis: signal / level difference provided

Question 8

problems w method of constant stimuli

Answer 8

time consuming

need to play each stimulus multiple times

need to play a wide range of stimuli

Question 9

adaptive procedures

Answer 9

pick a starting level/difference

if listener hears it –> make it harder
if listener doesn’t hear it –> make it easier

keep doing this until we find the threshold

aka tracking

Question 10

problems w adaptive procedures

Answer 10

only know the threshold not the psychometric function

Question 11

chance in detection

Answer 11

bound to be right 50% of the time just by chance

give subject intervals instead of yes or no

Question 12

signal detection theory

Answer 12

relationship between responses

our ability to detect = how much signal & how much noise (SNR)
— always some overlap, always some noise that “masks” the signal

Question 13

bias free estimate of performance using signal detection

Answer 13

% correct = (% hits + % correct rejections) /2