PSYC 351 - Exam 3

respiration

* air must be pushed out the lungs, through the trachea, and up the larynx
* diaphragm shrink and relaxes
* air comes rushing in to equalize high pressure outside with low pressure inside diaphragm

1. respiration
2. phonation
3. articulation

how do we generate speech sounds?

relax

creates low pressure and air comes rushing out

phonation

process through which vocal folds are made to vibrate when air moves by them

vocal folds

pair of elastic tissues that vibrate to create your voice

\
(aka vocal cords)

1. thickness (thick strings = lower noises)
2. stiffness

how can you control pitch with vocal folds?

timbre

can also alter the --------- of your voice of your vocal folds

* part of speech where you can generate a vibration
* can alter based on how you produce the sound (whispering)

articulation

act / manner of producing a speech sound using the vocal tract

vocal tract

an airway above the larynx that is used as a filter to produce speech sounds

the way you hold your tongue or mouth can filter frequencies / change what frequencies get through

how can you modulate frequencies?

formant

* defined as peak on spectogram
* resonance in the vocal tract
* based on how we create the sound - mouth and tongue position

spectogram

* more typical method of plotting speech sounds
* defined by color - high amplitude = red ; low amplitude = blue

phoneme

* basic unit of sound / speech that makes a meaningful difference in utterances in a given language
* english as about 40 ; across all languages \~ 350
* consonants or vowel sounds

learning phonemes

* not all languages have same phonemes
* we are all born with phoneme awareness and then lose certain phonemes with experience
* we’re more aware when young and lose the ability as we grow older

articulating speech sounds

involve closing / almost closing mouth in some manner

1. place of articulation
2. manner of articulation
3. voicing

what are the 3 variables that affect which consonant sound is produced during speech?

place of articulation

* variable that affects which consonant sound is produced during speech
* what part of your vocal tract are you using to obstruct airflow
* closing your mouth - ‘m’ or ‘b’
* tongue behind teeth - ‘d’ or ‘t’

manner of articulation

* variable that affects which consonant sound is produced during speech
* how much is airflow obstructed
* total obstruction - ‘b’ or ‘d’
* partial obstruction - ‘f’ or ‘s’
* mouth / nasal obstruction - ‘m’ or ‘n’

voicing

* variable that affects which consonant sound is produced during speech
* are you using your vocal folds to phonate
* vibrating - ‘m’ or ‘z’
* not vibrating - ‘p’ or ‘ch’

1. coarticulation
2. categorical perception

what are the problems with thinking in ‘little chunks’ ?

coarticulation

* speech sounds vary according to other speech sounds that precede + follow
* successive speech sounds overlap + blend into each other
* tongue must adapt to make a transition from previous phoneme to current phoneme

categorical perception

* perception of different sensory stimuli as identical even though there is slight variation in the underlying physical stimuli
* dividing a continuous physical variable into a discrete perception
* humans do not hear continuously - naturally separate sounds

visual input

perception of (auditory) phonemes can also be influenced by --------- -------

McGurk Effect

* play an auditory speech sound (bah) while simultaneously playing a video that shows a sound (gah) being generated
* RESULT : participants hear a 3rd, different phoneme / sound (dah) - what we see overrides what we hear
* context is important in speech perception - visual image influences audition

crossmodal perception

when one sensory modality affects perception in another sensory modality

\
(example of top-down processing)

\
(result of McGurk Effect)

1. Broca’s Area
2. Wernicke’s Area

what brain areas are involved in speech perception ?

aphasia

impairment in speech production / comprehension that is caused by damage to the speech centers in the brain

Broca’s Area

* area in brain involved in speech perception
* damage to this region results in *expressive aphasia*
* ability to understand speech is intact
* ability to produce speech is impaired

expressive aphasia

ability to understand speech is intact - ability to produce speech is impaired

\
(can comprehend speech - can’t express speech)

Wernicke’s Area

* area in brain involved in speech perception
* damage to this region results in *receptive aphasia*
* ability to understand speech is impaired
* ability to produce speech is intact

receptive aphasia

ability to understand speech is impaired - ability to produce speech is intact

\
(can express speech - can’t comprehend it)

1. regularity
2. productiveness
3. arbitrariness
4. discreteness

what are the basic components of human languages ?

regularity

(a basic component of human language)

\
a language system must be governed by a system of stable and predictive rules

productiveness

(a basic component of human language)

\
* new ideas can be expressed by novel combinations of the simple parts of the language
* a nearly infinite amount of ideas can be expressed with the simple components of English

arbitrariness

(a basic component of human language)

\
human languages typically lack a necessary resemblance between the word and the object is describes

discreteness

(a basic component of human language)

\
a language can be broken down into simple subunits (noun, verb, adjective, etc.)

productiveness ; discreteness

bird songs lack ------------------ + --------------- because they are not being used to generate new ideas and each sound already has simple definitions attached

arbitrariness

bee dances lack ------------------

productiveness

when parrots make human speech it lacks ------------------- because they cannot generate new phrases

pitch

psychological perception of a frequency

musical notes

correspond to specific frequencies

\
A → 220 Hz

B → 247 Hz

C → 262 Hz

D → 294 Hz

E → 330 Hz

octave

interval between sound frequencies with a 2:1 ratio

\
(musical notes can have several)

just intonation

* octaves would be a perfect 2:1 ratio
* frequencies of sounds are in simple ratios with one another

equal temperament

* used by Western music
* frequency of notes are adjusted from simple ratios so combinations of notes will sound equally good when played in higher or lower frequency ranges
* not perfect doubling but is sounds better to our ears

the musical helix

* musical pitch described as 2 dimensions
* frequency and tone heigh increase with increased height of helix
* circular laps correspond to changes in tone chroma

tone height

level of pitch (low to high)

tone chroma

quality shared by items with the same musical notes

chords

combination of two or more notes

dyad

two notes combined

triad

three notes combined

consonant chords

* combinations of notes with simple ratios
* perfect fifth 3:2
* perfect fourth 4:3
* typically perceived as very pleasing

dissonant chords

* combinations of notes with less elegant ratios
* minor second 16:15
* augmented fourth 45:32
* typically perceived as less pleasing

musical scales

(aka musical key)

\
* group of musical notes that can be played in sequence
* most western music uses a 7 note scale (heptatonic)

melody

* sequence of notes / chords perceived as a coherent structure
* relative arrangement of notes (pitches) that does not depend on specific notes
* any can be transposed into a new set of notes

tempo

* the same melody can be played at varying speeds as long as the relative duration of notes are held constant
* affects the “mood” of music
* typically measured in beats per minute (BPM)

rhythm

number of beats in a given section of a melody

rhythm perception

(Bolton, 1894)

\
* played series of equally spaced sounds to listeners - no rhythm to the sound
* people tended to group the sounds into a rhythm anyway

syncopation

* any deviation from a regular rhythm
* musicians use this as a trick - play a note when you don’t expect them too (common in jazz and reggae)

universal human trait

music is a ------------ ---------- ------- like language, technology, or societal structure - every single human culture has some form of music

universal rules of musical systems

1. the octave as a basic principle in pitch organization
2. a logarithmic pitch scale
3. discrete pitch levels
4. 5 to 7 unequally spaced pitches in a scale
5. hierarchies of stability for pitch

musical perception in infants

* infants could detect mistunings equally well in Western and Indonesian scales

absolute pitch

(aka perfect pitch)

\
some people can hear a musical note in isolation and name / recreate it

relative pitch

many musicians / people can tell the name of one note in relation to another note

1. extensive training
2. maybe familial / genetics
3. extensive musical training as a child

how is absolute pitch acquired ?

10 year rule

Anders Ericsson

* takes -- ----- of 2 to 5 hours of deliberate practice per day to become an expert at something ( \~ 10,000 hours)

synthesia

* when sensory stimulus in one domain automatically triggers response in another sensory domain
* often cross-modal
* estimated to affect 1 to 4 % of population

color-music synthesia

* form of synthesia that occurs when particular pitches, notes, chords, or other tonal qualities elicit experience of particular visual color
* not a hallucination because the person can distinguish the perceptual experience from reality
* some fMRI studies show enhanced connections between visual + auditory cortex while listening to simple musical tones

cross-modal matching

psychophysical technique where a stimulus from one sensory modality is played + an observer selected matching stimulus in another sensory modality

syncopated auditory polyrhythms

* when 2 different rhythms overlap - one of the two rhythms becomes dominant / controlling rhythm and the other perceptually adjusts to accommodate
* accented beat of subordinate rhythm shifts in time
* syncopation is perception that beats in subordinate rhythm have actually traveled backward / forward in time

contour

melody is defined by its -------- which is the patter of rises + declines in pitch

orientation ; velocity

your phone has a sense of its ------------ and its ---------

accelerometer

measures inertial motion

gyroscope

measures orientation

magnetometer

measures the magnetic poles of Earth

GPS

global positioning system that measures where you are on Earth

spatial orientation

a sense consisting of 3 interacting modalities :


1. perception of linear motion
2. perception of angular motion
3. perception of tilt

linear motion

* translational movement in one direction
* nonrotational movement in a uniform direction

angular motion

rotational motion like that of a spinning top of the swinging doors of a saloon

tilt

* to attain a sloped position like the Leaning Tower of Pisa
* orientation of head / body in reference to gravity

vestibular system

* sensory organs that contribute to detection of self-motion + orientation
* crucial for balance + coordination
* helps with visual stability, balance, autonomic spatial orientation

the ear!

* semicircular canals
* otolith organs

where is the vestibular system located ?

semicircular canals

detect angular motion involved in head + body rotations

posterior semicircular canal

detects roll

anterior semicircular canal

detect pitch (angular head rotations)

horizontal semicircular canal

detects yaw (shaking head no)

endolymph ; ampulla

semicircular canals are filled with fluid called ------------ which hits the ---------

ampulla

the ‘retina’ of the vestibular system that transduces angular motion into a neural signal

cilia

depending on direction pushed by endolymph, causes increased or decreased firing rates for transduction of neural signals

hyperpolarization

when cilia bends forward → decreases firing rates

depolarization

when cilia bends backward → increases firing rate

accelerations ; velocity

semicircular canals respond to --------------- not ----------

velocity

speed at which something moves

acceleration

change in velocity

otolith organs

detect linear motion and tilt

macula

* part of the otolith organs
* contains otoconia
* otolithic membrane
* hair cells

otoconia

tiny calcium carbonate stones that provide inertial mass for organs

otolithic membrane

gelatinous membrane that bends with linear motion

hair cells

are bent by the motion of the otolithic organ → creating neural signal

utricle ; saccule

the ------- is sensitive to horizontal movement while the ------- is sensitive to vertical movement

velocity storage

* your vestibular system detects changes in linear / rotational motion
* after initial exposure → vestibular system gradually habituates to the rotational motion
* result → once physical motion stops you perceive rotational motion in the opposite direction