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Science of Human Communication
Final Study Guide Pages 7-8
27
Science
Undergraduate 2
12/14/2008

Additional Science Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
What is psychoacoustics?
Definition

 

The science of "what we hear as we hear it."

 

The difference of what we can physically measure and what we can perceive

Term
How does the PHYSICAL MEASUREMENT differ from PERCEPTION?
Definition

 

Perception is subjective (qualitative) and physical measurement is quantifiable. Although there is a relationship between physical measure and perception, it is not 1:1

    Frequency (physical) à Pitch (perceptual)

    Intensity/amplitude (physical) à Loudness (perceptual)

 

Term
On the loudness scale, what is a phon?
Definition
The unit of loudness level
Term
What does the loudness level contour graph represent?
Definition

The numbers on each of the contours are the number of phons corresponding to that contour

(ex. All points on a 40 phon contour scale are equal in loudness to a 1,000 Hz tone at an intensity  of 40 dB-SPL.

Term
How do you interpret points that all fall on the same line?
Definition
As having different intensities (?)
Term
Do we normally percieve a complex periodic sound as having 1 or many pitches?
Definition
1
Term
What does the pitch correspond to?
Definition
The frequency of the common difference (ex. pitches heard of 700, 800, 900, 1000 pitch heard is 100Hz)
Term
What is the phenomenon of the missing fundamental or virtual pitch?
Definition
A sound is said to have a missing fundamental, suppressed fundamental, or phantom fundamental when it overtones suggest a fundamental frequency but the sound lacks a component at the fundamental frequency itself. However, the brain perceives the pitch of a tone not only by its fundamental frequency, but also by the ratio of the higher harmonics. Thus, we may perceive the same pitch (perhaps with a different timbre) even if the fundamental frequency is missing from a tone.

Term
What does it mean to listen synthetically versus analytically?
Definition
Those that require the listener to selectively attend to a single element of an acoustic pattern (analytic); and those that require the listener to combine information from multiple elements of the pattern (synthetic)
Term
When we perceive the pitch of complex periodic sounds, including those when the fundamental frequency is missing, are we listening synthetically or analytically?
Definition
Syntetically
Term
What is detection?
Definition
Detecting a sound that is present
Term
What range of frequencies can we (as normal hearing listeners) detect?
Definition
20, 20,000 Hz (1,000 - 6,000 are the most sensitive)
Term
How is the hearing acuity curve obtained and what does it represent?
Definition

The upper curve represents the intensity of which people begin to feel sound as well as hear it

Beyond that point, people begin to feel discomfort. Each curve is labeled according to the percentage of the group that could hear counds weaker than the level shown by the vertical scale.

Term

What is discrimination?

 

What is a discrimination threshold (just noticeable difference)?

Definition

Discrimination is determining whether sounds are different from one another

 

Discrimination threshold = how small a change in stimulus a listener can detect

Term
What is the importance of discrimination?
Definition
We can't understand speech unless we can tell different speech sounds apart and separating speech from sound... cocktail effect shoes how listeners attend to one speak in light of competition from other sounds
Term
What is recognition?
Definition
Determining what the specific sound is (/b/ or /p/ or / buy or tie)
Term

What is speech perception?

 

What is plotted on a spectograph?

 

Are units of speech easily discerned on a spectograph?

Definition

Speech perception attaches meaningful perceptual experiences on an otherwise meaningless input

 

Spectograph: Wavelengths

 

Yes

Term
What is the idealized model of speech perception and is it accurate? Why or why not?
Definition

Audition is processed to extract acoustic and phonetic information at a higher level process (recognition)

 

-Not accurate, due to lack of invariance

Term
What is a challenge in perceiving speech?
Definition
Words run into another
Term
What is coarticulation?
Definition
is the transition from one gesture to another
Term
Lack of acoustic invariance?
Definition
not 1-1 correspondance between acoustical pattern and phoneme perceived, difference within a given speak and between speakers
Term

What information do we use to parse speech message?

It is a combo of...

Definition

1. acoustic info (bottom-up clues)

2. non-acoustic info (top-down)

3. multimodal info (audiovisual integration)

Term

What are some of the limitations of bottom-up clues?

 

Top-down?

Definition

Bottom up:Degradation of signal (by noise) and lack of acoustic invariance

 

Top-down:  not based on info from the acoustic signal, deals with knowledge of a language so one needs to be familiar with the language

Term
What is meant by the notion that there is a redundancy of perceptual cues in the speech signal and why is redundancy a good thing when it comes to speech perception?
Definition
Since it is a bottom-up process it involves the linking together of many different processes so there is a redundancy in the respect that one must understand on facet to move onto the next. It is a good thing because it enables accurate perception and can fill in the blanks
Term
For non-acoustic information.. what is important?
Definition
Context is important, is an active hypothesis driven process
Term
What is multimodal Information?
Definition
Audiovisual integration - use of visual as well as auditory cues in speech perception. One of the strongest pieces of evidence is McGurk effect when auditory signals conflict with visual signals (visual is 'ga ga' velar / and auditory is 'ba ba' bilabial) listeners from different language backgrounds show the McGurk effect well
Term
What is speech reading?
Definition
Front of mouth phonemes that are most easily discernable, the place/manner/voicing is NOT easiest, It's put in a bottom-up/top-down context
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