Week 10

Question 1

What are sound waves?

Answer 1

Waves of pressure changes in air caused by vibrations

Question 2

What is the perceptual correlate:
Frequency
Amplitude
waveform

Answer 2

Pitch: hertz

loudness: decibels
timbre: none

Question 3

What is the difference between frequency and pitch?

Answer 3

Frequency is the pure tone which is related to the perceptual dimension of pitch

Question 4

Amplitude:
Loudness
decibles

Answer 4

• Physical characteristic
• Perceptual characteristic
• units of amplitude -

Question 5

what is the Audibility curve ?

Answer 5

What is the minimum threshold for us to hear it

Question 6

What is pure tone?

Answer 6

Sound wave in which air pressure changes overtime

Question 7

What is Fourier analysis?

Answer 7

Showed that waveforms of most periodic sounds have a more complex shape

Question 8

What are harmonics?

Answer 8

Component frequency of complex waveform

Question 9

What is timbre ?

Answer 9

Difference in sound quality between two sounds with same pitch and loudness

Question 10

Illusion of the missing fundamental shows that the Auditory systems

Answer 10

uses patterns of frequency in a sounds harmonics as part of pitch

Question 11

What is the difference between manner of onset and offset?

Answer 11

Manner of onset (attack) and offset (decay) also affect timbre perception

Question 12

Anatomy of the ear?

Answer 12

Provides direction and funnelling sound

Question 13

What are the three parts of the ear and their function?

Answer 13

outer(pinna): outside
middle (auditory) canal Mechanical movement
inner: resorting fluid energy

Question 14

What are ossicles?

Answer 14

three small bones on the middle ear that transmit sound energy

Question 15

What is the malleus

Answer 15

Small bone in the inner ear
one of the ossicles
transmits sound to the incus

Question 16

What is the inches (anvil)

Answer 16

small bone in the inner ear
one of the ossicles
transmits sound from malleus to stapes

Question 17

what is the difference between the inner and the outer hair cells?

Answer 17

inner hair cells convey almost all the info about sound waves to the brain while the outer receives info from the brain (feed back system

Question 18

what is the neural representation of frequency and amplitude?

Answer 18

auditory system mechanisms are used to encode frequency in the neural signals sent to the brain.

Question 19

What is the frequency theory?

Answer 19

• suggests that the neurons firing rate matches the Hz

- works only at low frequencies

Question 20

What is the place code fro frequency?

Answer 20

-established the physical basis for place code

Question 21

What is the physiology frequency tuning curves?

Answer 21

auditory nerve fibres can be accounted for by the frequency tuning of the basilar membrane (mechanical factor)

Question 22

Mapping of type I nerve fibres to position in the organ of corti?

Answer 22

Characteristics frequency of auditory nerve fibres and the position in the organ of corti
strong evidence for place coding

Question 23

What are the features of the auditory brain structure?

Answer 23

cochlear nucleus: first brain stem
superior olive: early brain stem
interior colliculus: midbrain nucleus
medial geniculate nucleus: thalamus that relays signals to temporal cortex

Question 24

____ Is the psychological aspect of sound related mainly to the fundamental frequency.

Answer 24

Pitch

Question 25

The acoustic reflex protects the ear from intense sounds by:

Answer 25

Contraction of the stapedius and tensor tympani muscles

Question 26

The organ of Corti is a structure on the basilar membrane composed of _______ and dendrites of auditory nerve fibers.

Answer 26

Hair cells

Question 27

A complex sound consists of:

Answer 27

many sinusoidal components of different frequencies.

Question 28

The _______ consists of three tiny bones called ossicles.

Answer 28

middle ear

Question 29

Rate saturation occurs when a nerve fiber is firing as rapidly as possible and

Answer 29

further stimulation cannot increase the firing rate

Question 30

Some auditory nerves fire in synchrony at a particular point in the period of a sound wave, which is called

Answer 30

phase locking

Question 31

_______ refers to the idea that multiple neurons can provide a temporal code for frequency if each neuron fires first at a distinct point in the period of a sound wave but does not fire on every period.

Answer 31

The volley principle

Question 32

The phenomenon of _______ occurs when a second sound, frequently noise, is added to make the detection of another sound more difficult.

Answer 32

masking

Question 33

Why is white noise the best choice for masking random sounds in an environment?

Answer 33

Since white noise includes energy at all frequencies, it is good at masking random sounds of any frequency.