Questions from Quiz 9

Question 1

A listener hears two tones:
Tone A: 100 Hz at 70 dB SPL
Tone B: 1000 Hz at 70 dB SPL
Based on the equal-loudness curve, which tone will be perceived as louder, and why?

a) Tone A, because low-frequency sounds are perceived as louder at the same dB SPL.
b) Tone B, because mid-range frequencies require less intensity to achieve the same perceived loudness.
c) Both tones will be perceived as equally loud, since they have the same dB SPL.
d) Neither tone will be audible, as they are below the threshold of hearing.

Answer 1

b) Tone B, because mid-range frequencies require less intensity to achieve the same perceived loudness.

Question 2

Which of the following statements about loudness are true? (Select two)

a) Sones are used to measure perceived loudness on a subjective scale.
b) Loudness depends only on the amplitude of the sound wave.
c) Loudness is influenced by both amplitude and frequency of the sound wave.
d) dB SPL measures perceived loudness directly without any reference levels.

Answer 2

a) Sones are used to measure perceived loudness on a subjective scale.
c) Loudness is influenced by both amplitude and frequency of the sound wave.

Question 3

A researcher presents two stimuli in a categorization task:
Stimulus A: A sound with a voice onset time (VOT) of 10 ms.
Stimulus B: A sound with a VOT of 30 ms.
Based on what you know about how acoustic information is mapped onto linguistic categories, what would likely determine how listeners categorize these sounds?

a) The absolute acoustic differences between Stimulus A and Stimulus B.
b) The listener’s experience with distributions of VOTs in their native language.
c) The listener’s ability to perceive differences in amplitude.
d) Whether the listener is in a noisy or quiet environment.

Answer 3

b) The listener’s experience with distributions of VOTs in their native language.

Question 4

Which of the following are key differences between a neurogram and a spectrogram? (Select two)

a) A neurogram replaces frequencies with cochlear positions and amplitude with neural activation.
b) A neurogram represents frequency response patterns on a non-linear cochlear scale, while a spectrogram typically uses a linear Hertz scale.
c) A neurogram shows the same spectral details as a spectrogram but uses a different color scheme.
d) A neurogram shows sound intensity over time, while a spectrogram shows sound frequency over time.

Answer 4

a) A neurogram replaces frequencies with cochlear positions and amplitude with neural activation.
b) A neurogram represents frequency response patterns on a non-linear cochlear scale, while a spectrogram typically uses a linear Hertz scale.

Question 5

Mary is studying the effect of different speech sounds on the spike rate of neural population in an under-described language. Which of the following sound sequence would involve least steep spike?

a) [usu]
b) [ana]
c) [ubu]
d) [aba]

Answer 5

b) [ana]

Question 6

A researcher is investigating whether listeners can distinguish between two similar speech sounds, such as [p] and [b]. Participants hear three sounds in each trial:
the first sound is a [p] produced with a short VOT
the last sound is a [b] produced with a longer VOT
the middle one is either [p] or [b], randomly selected
The participants’ task is to identify whether the middle sound matches the first or the second. What is the experimental design of this task?

a) Categorization
b) AXB
c) ABX
d) AX

Answer 6

b) AXB