Deck 12: Perceiving Speech and Music

Question 1

In this figure illustrating the harmonic spectrum of sound waves emerging from the mouth, the individual peaks in the spectrum labeled as F₁, F₂, and F₃ refer to:

A) consonant frequencies.
B) formants.
C) pitches.
D) harmonics.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The _____ is a part of the vocal tract that contains the vocal folds and is also known as the voice box.

A) larynx
B) velum
C) pharynx
D) uvula

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The fundamental frequency of vocal-fold vibration for adult males is in the range of _____ Hz.

A) 85-180
B) 165-255
C) 300-700
D) 800-1,000

Answer 3

A

Question 4

_____ is produced by varying the size and shape of the oral cavity.

A) A vowel sound
B) A consonant sound
C) Consonance
D) Dissonance

Question 5

_____ refers to the perception of different sensory stimuli as identical, up to a point at which further variation in the stimulus leads to a sharp change in the perception.

A) Phonemic boundary
B) Voice onset time
C) Continuous perception
D) Categorical perception

Question 6

The word chat consists of _____ phonemes.

A) five
B) two
C) three
D) four

Question 7

The word cat consists of _____ phonemes.

A) four
B) two
C) three
D) zero

Question 8

Formants are the frequency bands with:

A) relatively high amplitude in the harmonic spectrum of a vowel sound.
B) relatively low amplitude in the harmonic spectrum of a vowel sound.
C) relatively high amplitude in the harmonic spectrum of a consonant sound.
D) relatively low amplitude in the harmonic spectrum of a consonant sound.

Question 9

In the context of voicing, when the vocal folds vibrate, it indicates:

A) a voiced sound.
B) a voiceless sound.
C) consonance.
D) dissonance.

Question 10

In the human vocal apparatus, the _____ is the uppermost part of the throat.

A) larynx
B) alveolar ridge
C) pharynx
D) uvula

Question 11

In the word rhyme, the letters h and e:

A) are represented by different phonemes.
B) do not correspond to any sound.
C) sound different from one another.
D) are represented by different IPA symbols.

Question 12

In the production of consonant sounds, _____ specifies whether the vocal folds are vibrating or not, that is, whether the consonant is voiced or voiceless.

A) place of articulation
B) manner of articulation
C) the shape of the oral cavity
D) voicing

Question 13

This figure illustrating coarticulation in consonant production shows the schematic spectrograms for /di/ and /du/. The second formant for the vowel /i/ has much higher frequency than that for the vowel /u/. The transition from /d/ to the second formant of the vowel has a high and rising profile for /di/ and a low and declining profile for /du/. However, one perceives the /d/ as sounding the same in the two syllables. This is an example of:

A) harmonicity.
B) perceptual constancy.
C) categorical perception.
D) the McGurk effect.

Question 14

In the production of consonants, the nature of the restriction of airflow in the vocal tract is described by:

A) coarticulation.
B) the manner of articulation.
C) the place of articulation.
D) pre-articulation.

Question 15

According to the patterns of articulation for English consonants, restriction at the _____ region produces English stop consonants.

A) glottal
B) velar
C) postalveolar
D) labiodental

Question 16

According to investigations based on the precise relationship between the voice onset time and the perception of stop consonants, the abrupt transition near the phonemic boundary characterizes:

A) categorical perception.
B) continuous perception.
C) dissonance.
D) the harmonic spectrum.

Question 17

The fundamental frequency of vocal fold vibration for children is _____ Hz.

A) in the range of 85-180
B) in the range of 165-255
C) over 300
D) below 85

Question 18

The International Phonetic Alphabet:

A) represents a simple one-to-one correspondence between phonemes and letters.
B) uses a special set of roman letters.
C) eliminates confusing differences between sound and spelling.
D) only uses symbols found in written English.

Question 19

The smallest unit of sound that, if changed, would change the meaning of a word is called a:

A) morpheme.
B) phoneme.
C) letter.
D) symbol.

Question 20

A pair of membranes within the larynx through which air passes is called the:

A) alveolar ridge.
B) vocal folds.
C) pharynx.
D) uvula.

Question 21

_____ refers to the manner in which loudness varies as a piece of music progresses.

A) Transposition
B) Melody
C) Rhythm
D) Dynamics

Question 22

Two versions of the same melody containing the same intervals but starting at different notes are called:

A) discords.
B) transpositions.
C) octaves.
D) semitones.

Question 23

_____ refers to the temporal patterning of events in a musical composition, encompassing tempo, beat, and meter.

A) Dynamics
B) Pitch
C) Rhythm
D) Transposition

Question 24

According to the pitch helix, notes that are exactly one octave apart:

A) have the same fundamental frequency.
B) have the same tone chroma.
C) have a different tone chroma.
D) are aligned horizontally.

Question 25

Wanda is practicing the happy birthday song on a piano. Some of the notes are too high for her, so she starts singing in a lower note. This scenario MOST likely illustrates:

A) dynamics.
B) pitch.
C) rhythm.
D) transpositions.

Question 26

In Western music, each octave consists of 13 notes separated by _____ proportionally equivalent intervals called semitones.

A) 12
B) 13
C) 18
D) 16

Question 27

The French physician Pierre Paul Broca described two patients with damage to a region in the:

A) left superior temporal cortex and largely impaired ability to comprehend speech.
B) left superior temporal cortex and largely impaired ability to produce speech.
C) left inferior frontal cortex and largely impaired ability to comprehend speech.
D) left inferior frontal cortex and largely impaired ability to produce speech.

Question 28

Carl Wernicke, the German neurologist, described patients with damage to a region in the:

A) left superior temporal cortex with deficits in speech comprehension.
B) left superior temporal cortex with deficits in speech production.
C) left inferior frontal cortex with deficits in speech comprehension.
D) left inferior frontal cortex with deficits in speech production.

Question 29

According to musical notes and the range of pitches of musical instruments, A4 has a fundamental frequency of 220 Hz, and A5 has a fundamental frequency of _____ Hz.

A) 110
B) 330
C) 440
D) 880

Question 30

The term _____ refers to the quality exhibited by a combination of two or more notes from a scale that sounds unpleasant, or "off."

A) dissonance
B) consonance
C) harmonicity
D) dynamics

Question 31

In the context of speech-related neural signals, the ventral pathway is involved in speech _____ and the dorsal pathway is involved in speech _____.

A) perception; production
B) production; perception
C) impairments; perception
D) production; impairments

Question 32

According to the text, the phoneme transition probability for the sequence /kt/ at the start of a word would be _____ percent.

A) zero
B) between 10 and 25
C) 100
D) between 25 and 50

Question 33

_____ refers to the chances that any particular sequence of phonemes occurs at the start of a word, in the middle of a word, at the end of a word, or across the boundary between two words.

A) Phoneme restoration
B) Phoneme transition probability
C) Harmonicity
D) Coarticulation

Question 34

Betsy was listening to the radio. She did not realize that a phoneme in the announcer's speech had been replaced by a coughing sound. The fact that she seemed to perceive the missing speech sounds illustrates:

A) a phonemic boundary.
B) harmonicity.
C) phonemic restoration.
D) the McGurk effect.

Question 35

_____ refers to an impairment in speech production or comprehension, or both, caused by damage to speech centers in the brain.

A) Phonophobia
B) Aphasia
C) Amusia
D) Adipsia

Question 36

Julia met with a road accident. After the accident, she was able to understand what other people spoke. However, she was able to produce only a few words of speech. The accident has MOST likely destroyed her _____ frontal cortex.

A) right inferior
B) right superior
C) left superior
D) left inferior

Question 37

In the perception of speech sounds, when auditory and visual stimuli conflict, the auditory system tends to compromise on a perception that shares features with both the seen and the heard stimuli. This phenomenon is called:

A) manner of articulation.
B) coarticulation.
C) categorical perception.
D) the McGurk effect.

Question 38

In the perception of speech sounds, the McGurk effect occurs when _____ and _____ conflict.

A) voice onset time; voice offset time
B) olfaction; gustation
C) auditory stimulus; visual stimulus
D) categorical perception; continuous perception

Question 39

Plantinga and Trainor (2005) conducted a study in which six-month-old infants were exposed to a melody repeatedly over seven days. On the eighth day, the infants either heard the familiar melody transposed to a different starting note or heard an unfamiliar melody. According to this study, when given a choice, young infants looked longer toward the speaker playing:

A) the familiar melody.
B) the unfamiliar melody.
C) the transposed version of the familiar melody.
D) either the familiar or the transposed version of the melody.

Question 40

In Western music, notes that are exactly one octave apart:

A) have the same fundamental frequency.
B) have different sound qualities.
C) have similar sound qualities.
D) cause dissonance.

Question 41

Can a computer be taught to perceive language by programming it to know the phonemes that comprise all words?

Question 42

People who suffer from amusia:

A) cannot distinguish between different melodies.
B) have difficulty in speech perception.
C) have difficulty in speech production.
D) can distinguish between different melodies.

Question 43

Arrange the phonemes below in pairs such that each pair is produced via the same manner of articulation. State which of each pair is voiced and which is voiceless.
/b/ (as in bad), /v/ (as in voice), /t/ (as in tea), /f/ (as in find), /d/ (as in did), /p/ (as in pet).

Question 44

In automatic speech recognition systems, which step filters out noise from the environment and accounts for differences between speakers?

A) hypothesis search
B) front-end processing
C) linguistic search
D) acoustic modeling

Question 45

Network television programs are prohibited from broadcasting profanity. However, a network such as Comedy Central might want to censor a word and still allow viewers to hear the word. This is done by playing the first phoneme of the word and masking the remaining phoneme(s) of the word. Which phenomenon would BEST allow the word to be perceived through the mask, a coughing sound or silence? Explain your answer. Would the same mask work for all words?

Question 46

Describe any three applications of automatic speech recognition (ASR).

Question 47

Differentiate between categorical and continuous perception.

Question 48

Researchers conducted a study that used magnetoencephalography to measure brain activity in a group of experienced musicians and a control group of nonmusicians listening to pure tones. The results showed that the:

A) patterns of brain activity differed for the two groups.
B) magnitude of brain activity did not differ across the two groups.
C) magnitude of brain activity was greater for the experienced musicians compared with nonmusicians.
D) magnitude of brain activity was greater for the nonmusicians compared with the experienced musicians.

Question 49

Krumhansl and Kessler (1982) conducted an experiment in which participants had to rate how well various single notes "fit" with chords from various scales. The results showed that notes belonging to:

A) the same scale as the chord had a higher rating than the notes that belonged to a different scale.
B) the same scale as the chord had a higher rating than the notes of the chord itself.
C) the same scale as the chord had a lower rating than the notes that belonged to a different scale.
D) a different scale as the chord had a higher rating than the notes of the chord itself.

Question 50

In automatic speech recognition systems, which is the CORRECT sequence of steps for recognizing speech?

A) hypothesis search $\rightarrow$ acoustic modeling $\rightarrow$ front-end processing
B) hypothesis search $\rightarrow$ front-end processing $\rightarrow$ acoustic modeling
C) front-end processing $\rightarrow$ acoustic modeling $\rightarrow$ hypothesis search
D) acoustic modeling $\rightarrow$ front-end processing $\rightarrow$ hypothesis search

Question 51

A neurologist is presented with two patients; the first patient is having difficulty producing speech, and the second patient is having difficulty understanding speech. When the neurologist inspects the MRIs of each patient's brain, where is one MOST likely to find lesions?

Question 52

What are formants? Explain how the human vocal apparatus produces vowels.

Question 53

Notes in the C major scale include C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, while notes in the C minor scale would include:

A) C, D, E flat, F, G, A flat, B, and C.
B) F, G, A, B, C flat, D flat, E, and F.
C) E, F flat, G flat, A, B, C, D, and E.
D) D, E, F flat, G, A, B, C flat, and D.

Question 54

Compositions based on minor scales are said to sound _____ than compositions based on major scales.

A) happier
B) brighter
C) sadder
D) louder

Question 55

What is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)? Why is it used in the representation of phonemes?

Question 56

When a new song is released by Taylor Swift, it is almost immediately embraced by her fans. It is new, yet it sounds very familiar. What role does the listener's musical knowledge and experience play in making something new sound familiar?

Question 57

_____ refers to a profound impairment in perceiving and remembering melodies and in distinguishing one melody from another.

A) Amusia
B) Absolute pitch
C) Aphasia
D) Dynamics

Question 58

In the context of individual differences in music-related ability, _____ percent of the population can listen to isolated notes and name them accurately and effortlessly.

A) more than five
B) less than one
C) 19
D) 40

Question 59

Why is C3 perceptually more similar to C4 than it is to B3, even though the frequency difference between C3 and B3 is much less than the frequency difference between C3 and C4?

Question 60

The _____ of a musical composition refers to the scale that functions as the basis of the composition.

A) key
B) pitch
C) dynamics
D) rhythm