Hearing (continuation)

PSYCHOLOGY 135
C.FAGELA-TIANGCO
UPDEPP
Auditory scene
The actual construction of the auditory scene in
consciousness appears to involve two mechanisms:
(1)A fast, involuntary process of auditory grouping
(2)The use of schemas to guide the grouping and
listening process
The more primitive auditory grouping mechanism
uses several sources of information:
(1)It analyzes the continuous flow of sound received by the ear
into separate time chunks and tries to group sound together
according to shared frequency ranges (intensity, temporal
change, frequency change, location).
(2)It groups together sounds that have similar patterns over
time (sequential integration) or have similar frequency
spectra (simultaneous integration) into separate auditory
streams.
 The range and limits of hearing

The limits of human hearing

depend on both frequency and
intensity of the sound.
The sensitivity of the human ear
peaks within the range of
approximately 2000 to 4000
oscillations per second (2000–
4000 Hz).
Humans can detect frequencies up
to 270,000 Hz, if the signal is
strong enough
Human beings can hear a wide range of frequencies:
Most people can detect frequencies as low as 20 Hz,
which is heard as a very low rumble. Young people
can detect frequencies as high as 20,000 Hz

In the middle frequencies, far less intensity is needed

to make a tone audible than in the low and high
frequencies
Human hearing is limited to a range of sounds.
Sounds that vibrate in the following ways cannot be
heard.
too fast (pitch is too high)
too slow (pitch is too low)
too large (volume is too loud)
too small (volume is too soft)
The limits for these properties of sound
are called:
upper limit of audibility (highest pitch
you can hear)
lower limit of audibility (lowest pitch
you can hear)
threshold of pain (loudest sound you
can hear)
threshold of hearing (softest sound
you can hear)
Loudness Perception

 Loudness depends on the frequency

content of the sound being heard

 At a given intensity level, the loudness of a

very high frequency sound will be less than
the loudness of a medium frequency sound
of the same decibel level

 The loudness of low frequency tones tends

to be less than that of medium frequency
tones
What happens within the auditory system as the
loudness of a sound varies?

- Activity of auditory neurons increases with intensity

- However, auditory nerve fibers increase their firing
rate over a limited range of sound intensities: this
range typically covers only about 40 dB. Yet one can
hear variations in the loudness of sounds over a
much larger range, around 120 dB.
 Pitch Perception

When we are considering a complex stimulus composed

of several sound-wave frequencies, the lowest frequency
sound wave is called the fundamental frequency.
The phenomenon of the missing fundamental tells us that pitch is
determined by the pattern of harmonics comprising a complex
sound, not just by the sound’s fundamental frequency.
In some conditions, tones of fixed frequency sound
different in pitch.

 For instance, the loudness of a pure tone influences

that tone’s pitch.
 shepards.mp3
The pitch of a pure tone of fixed frequency may also
vary when that tone is heard within a background of
noise.

Noise composed of frequencies lower than a tone

cause the pitch of the tone to appear higher than it
does when heard on its own; noise higher in
frequency than the tone causes its pitch to sound
lower.
falling.mp3
 Sound Localization :
Judging where sound comes from

Interaural Intensity
Differences (IID)
- IIDs are essentially nil when the
sound source consists of low
frequencies
- With low frequency sounds, the
wavelength of the sound is actually
longer than the diameter of the
head, which is about 20 cm. The
head is too small to interfere with
propagation of low-frequency
sound waves.
Interaural Time Differences
Stevens and Newman (1934)
Duplex theory of sound localization :
listeners use one source of info (ITD) to localize low-
frequency sounds and a different source of info (IID)
to localize high frequency sounds
The higher error rates at intermediate frequencies
indicate that this is a region where neither time nor
intensity is particularly effective
Mislocalization : Ears versus Eyes
 What you hear can alter what you see

The McGurk effect

McGurk.htm
mcgurk2.flv
 Sound Localization :
Judging the Distance of a Source

A sound source steadily

increasing in intensity constitute
auditory looming
Listeners reliably overestimate
the amount of change in a sound
that is steadily increasing, relative
to that same sound played
backward so that its loudness
steadily decreases
 Adaptation

– Neurons encode
– Steady state sounds (phase,
frequency, intensity)
– Onsets
– At stimulus onset, AN firing rate
increases rapidly
– For constant stimulus, the rate
decreases exponentially
– Spontaneous rate: AN firing rate in
the absence of stimulus

Neuron is more responsive to changes than

to steady inputs
 Monoaural beats

If two tones are presented monaurally with a small

frequency difference, a beating pattern can be heard

500 & 502 Hz 500 & 520 Hz

– Interaction of the two tones in the same auditory filter

– Beating arises from neural interaction
– Only perceived if the tones are sufficiently close in
frequency
END FOR AUDITORY.
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