hearing science exam 9

physical aspects of sound

intensity( amplitude) and frequency

psychological aspects of sound

loudness and pitch

loudness

• subjective perception of intensity

• perceptual correlate of intensity but based on more than intensity

  • also based partly on frequency

phons scale

scale where everything is compared to a 1000 hz tone

Equal levels contours

line on the phons scale visually representing different phons levels. Every point on the different curve has been judged to the the same loudness at any point along a single curve the perceived loudness of the tone would be the same as the perceived loudness of any other point on that curve including the 1000 hz tone

loudness in phons

level in DBSPL of an equally loud 1000 hz pure tone 

sone scale

make different increases on loudness on the scale proportional to each other. Loudness measurement scale in which 1 sone is equal to 40 phons. 

Mel scale

a psychophysical scale of pitch that related pitch to the frequency of pure tones

• pitch and frequency are not related in a 1 to 1 ratio

pitch of complex sounds is primarily determined by…

the fundamental frequency 

Difference tone

when you present two tones at a high intensity level you will hear a third tone even though the third tone does n to exist ( no energy presented at that frequency in the stimulus). A tone perceived by a. listener whose frequency is the difference between two tones even though no acoustic energy is at that level.

summation tone

the sum of two tones is the frequency the is heard as the third tone.

• occurs because of the non linearity of the outer hair cells

Case of the missing fundamental

auditory phenomenon where low frequency pitch perception is perceived when the fundamental frequency is absent from the signal

Residue pitch

perception of pitch similar to the fundamental frequency despite an absent fundamental frequency. Thought that this perception of pitch is related to the harmonic of the fundamental frequency and their relative spacing. 

timbre

• judgement of sound quality that is distinct from judgements of pitch or loudness 

• subjective attribute that differentiates sounds with the same duration, pitch and loudness

• due to relative amplitude of harmonics

• stimulus with more harmonics is often described as being fuller or richer 

Differential sensitivity

• detective ting and increase or decrease in frequency, intensity, or duration

Webers law

law stating that a s stimulus must be changed by a constant proportion of itself to be judged as different 

frequency discrimination

smallest change in frequency you can just barley detect