Deck 11: Hearing and Listening

Question 1

The representation of the variations in thresholds with sound frequency is referred to as a/an

A) audibility function.
B) just noticeable difference.
C) cortical deafness.
D) none of these

Answer 1

audibility function.

Question 2

A ____-Hz tone requires the least intensity to be heard.

A) 300
B) 1,000
C) 2,500
D) 8,000

Answer 2

2,500

Question 3

Hearing impairment of as little as ___ dB is sufficient to compromise speech comprehension.

A) 5
B) 25
C) 50
D) 100

Answer 3

25

Question 4

What is the most common cause of conductive hearing loss in children?

A) excessive buildup of ear wax
B) middle ear infections
C) inner hair cell damage
D) outer hair cell damage

Question 5

What refers to the immobilization of the stapes owing to the hardening of a spongy substance and thus serves as an example of conduction hearing loss?

A) bone conduction
B) ostosclerosis
C) presbycusis
D) none of these

Question 6

If a person who is deaf is able to hear sounds applied against the skull, that person has

A) a conduction loss.
B) a sensory/neural loss.
C) a hair cell loss.
D) an injury to the organ of Corti.

Question 7

Hearing loss that occurs as one gets older has been labeled

A) bone conduction.
B) ostosclerosis.
C) presbycusis.
D) none of these

Question 8

Presbycusis involves

A) a loss of low-frequency hearing.
B) a loss of medium-frequency hearing.
C) a loss of high-frequency hearing.
D) a loss of hearing over all frequencies.

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT associated with hearing loss?

A) sudden explosive noises
B) chronic noise exposure such as at airports and assembly plants
C) urban noise
D) All of these are associated with hearing loss.

Question 10

Hearing loss is produced by continued exposure to

A) industrial noise.
B) planes at airports.
C) rock concerts.
D) all of these

Question 11

Which drug(s) can have deleterious effects on hearing?

A) nicotine
B) aspirin
C) both nicotine and aspirin
D) neither nicotine nor aspirin

Question 12

A person with a high-frequency hearing loss would be least able to hear which of these speech sounds?

A) oo
B) ay
C) m
D) t

Question 13

Good hearing aids can be discriminated from poor hearing aids in their ability to

A) amplify the entire frequency range.
B) amplify frequencies in the range of 250 to 4,000 Hz.
C) directly stimulate the cochlea.
D) directly stimulate the auditory cortex.

Question 14

Sound that contains energy at all audible frequencies is called

A) broadband noise.
B) bandpass noise.
C) complex sound.
D) none of these

Question 15

The difference between broadband noise (BBN) and bandpass noise (BPN) is that

A) BBN is loud, whereas BPN is not.
B) BBN stimulates critical bands, whereas BPN does not.
C) BBN contains energy at all audible frequencies, whereas BPN does not..
D) BPN produces masking, whereas BBN does not.

Question 16

When a tone is to be detected against a background of noise, performance will be impaired if the tone and the noise are

A) within the same critical band.
B) different in frequency content.
C) heard by different ears.
D) lowpass filtered.

Question 17

Indicating how loud a sound is by assigning it a number proportional to its loudness is called

A) digitation.
B) loudness matching.
C) magnitude estimation.
D) contour matching.

Question 18

One method by which loudness perception is investigated is to require someone to match two perceptually distinct sounds so that they are equivalent in loudness. This method is referred to as

A) magnitude estimation.
B) equal loudness contour.
C) loudness matching.
D) contour matching.

Question 19

The result of loudness matching yields

A) the power law.
B) equal loudness contours.
C) critical bands.
D) loudness discrimination thresholds.

Question 20

If one graphically plotted the relationship between intensity and loudness using a log-log plot, it would reveal that

A) loudness grows more slowly than intensity.
B) intensity grows more slowly than loudness.
C) intensity and loudness grow equally.
D) the relationship between loudness and intensity depends on the individual being tested.

Question 21

The neural representation of loudness appears to involve

A) the discharge rate of individual fibers.
B) the place on the auditory cortex that is stimulated.
C) different neurons operating over different levels of sound intensity.
D) both the discharge rate of individual fibers and different neurons operating over different levels of sound intensity.

Question 22

If you determined the minimum intensity change that it took for your studious roommate to notice you had turned your stereo down, you'd have found

A) a discrimination threshold.
B) an absolute threshold.
C) a pitch threshold.
D) a modality match.

Question 23

The perceptual dimension in audition that corresponds to the physical dimension of frequency is

A) loudness.
B) intensity.
C) harmonics.
D) pitch.

Question 24

Increasing the intensity of a low-pitched tone (for example, 300 Hz) will

A) decrease its timbre.
B) decrease its pitch.
C) increase its pitch.
D) increase its timbre.

Question 25

The predominant frequency for any given note on a musical instrument is called its

A) significant frequency.
B) fundamental frequency.
C) basic harmonic.
D) central point.

Question 26

What is determined by the predominant frequency of a note?

A) its pitch
B) its fundamental frequency
C) its profile analysis
D) none of these

Question 27

What is a frequency called that is generated in addition to a fundamental frequency when a musical instrument is played?

A) harmonic
B) pitch
C) melody contour
D) missing fundamental

Question 28

If a note is played but the fundamental frequency is removed, and nothing but the higher harmonics remain, perception will be

A) of a sound having a lower frequency.
B) of a sound having a higher frequency.
C) of that note as if unaltered.
D) cannot be determined based on the information provided.

Question 29

The characteristic sound of a musical instrument is

A) determined by its fundamental frequency.
B) determined by the overtones it generates.
C) based on the perception of its timbre.
D) both determined by the overtones it generates and based on the perception of its timbre.

Question 30

The place theory of perception is NOT supported by which of the following?

A) Damage to the basilar membrane causes a loss of ability to hear only a certain limited set of frequencies.
B) Stimulation of the basilar membrane produces different pitches in association with the specific location stimulated.
C) Low frequencies (below 1,000 Hz) produce a broad pattern of displacement of the basilar membrane.
D) None of these support place theory.

Question 31

The perceptions of multiple sounds hitting the ear as distinct streams of sound is referred to as

A) perfect pitch.
B) relative pitch.
C) auditory images.
D) none of these

Question 32

Which one of the following is NOT mentioned as a contributing factor in the formation of auditory images?

A) common spectral content
B) common time course
C) presence of spectral harmonics
D) melodic distortion

Question 33

If you are listening to a musical piece and an error occurs, you are likely

A) to notice the mistake.
B) to notice the mistake if it is harmonically related to surrounding notes.
C) not to notice the mistake.
D) not to notice the mistake if it is harmonically related to surrounding notes.

Question 34

Sound localization first appears

A) at birth.
B) at two to three months.
C) during the preschool years.
D) during the elementary school years.

Question 35

Hearing is unlike vision in that

A) spatial coordinates are not explicitly represented in the sensory input.
B) people cannot locate sources based on sound, whereas they can using vision.
C) having two ears doesn't aid in perception, but having two eyes does.
D) sound localization must be learned, whereas visual localization is innate.

Question 36

How many positions are there in the horizontal plane where the interaural sound intensity difference is zero?

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

Question 37

The ability to localize high frequency sounds (e.g., a 6,000-Hz sound signal) is believed to be dependent on

A) interaural intensity differences.
B) interaural time differences.
C) the cone of confusion.
D) none of these

Question 38

Interaural sound intensity differences are greatest for a sound source consisting of

A) high frequencies.
B) mixed frequencies.
C) intermediate frequencies.
D) low frequencies.

Question 39

The idea that listeners use one source of information to localize low-frequency sounds and a different source of information to localize high-frequency sounds is termed

A) sound localization.
B) duplex theory.
C) binaural masking-level difference.
D) duality of patterning.

Question 40

As a cue to the localization of a sound, interaural time of arrival differences are greatest for

A) high frequencies.
B) low frequencies.
C) multiple frequencies.
D) intermediate frequencies.

Question 41

The ability to localize low-frequency sound signals is believed to be dependent on

A) interaural intensity differences.
B) interaural time differences.
C) the cone of confusion.
D) none of these

Question 42

The ability to pick out and attend to one sound from among many sounds in a noisy environment is called

A) cone of confusion.
B) Helmholtz effect.
C) cocktail party effect.
D) signal detection theory.

Question 43

If you heard a sound through someone else's pinna, compared to your own,

A) sound localization would be better.
B) sound localization would be unchanged.
C) sound localization would be worse.
D) sound localization would be better or worse, depending on the size of the pinna you were using.

Question 44

Which of the following is(are) considered (a) design feature(s) that minimize(s) mislocalization of sound signals?

A) pinnas
B) head movement
C) both pinnas and head movement
D) neither pinnas nor head movement

Question 45

When visual cues for a sound's location conflict with auditory cues, you will perceive its location

A) in accord with what you hear.
B) as a compromise between the two.
C) in accord with what you see.
D) as completely ambiguous.

Question 46

Animals with panoramic vision tend to have ____________ acuity for localizing sounds, whereas animals with frontal eyes tend to have ______________ sound localization ability.

A) poor, excellent
B) excellent, poor
C) excellent, excellent
D) poor, poor

Question 47

Auditory looming is

A) a steady increase in intensity of sound as a sound source approaches.
B) a tendency for mid-range frequencies to be louder than high and low frequencies.
C) the ability to pick out a particular speaker in a noisy environment with many other speakers.
D) all of these

Question 48

Approaching sounds appear

A) to be changing less than do the same sounds played backward.
B) to be changing more than do the same sounds played backward.
C) to be of higher pitch than do the same sounds played backward.
D) to be of lower pitch than do the same sounds played backward.

Question 49

Approaching sounds seem

A) to be closer than they really are.
B) to be farther away than they really are.
C) to be louder than they really are.
D) to be less loud than they really are.

Question 50

When two black disks move toward each other on a computer screen, overlap each other, and go to each other's starting position, people perceive that

A) the two disks pass through each other.
B) the two disks bounce off each other.
C) the two disks pass through each other when a brief sound occurs as they overlap.
D) the two disks bounce off each other when a brief sound occurs as they overlap.

Question 51

When an observer perceives two disks to pass through each other with a brief sound as they overlap,

A) activity in the visual areas of the brain is greater than when the observer perceives the disks to bounce.
B) activity in the auditory areas of the brain is greater than when the observer perceives the disks to
Bounce.
C)both activity in the visual areas of the brain is greater than when the observer perceives the disks to bounce and activity in the auditory areas of the brain is greater than when the observer perceives the disks to bounce.
D)neither activity in the visual areas of the brain is greater than when the observer perceives the disks to bounce nor activity in the auditory areas of the brain is greater than when the observer perceives the disks to bounce.

Question 52

Guttman, Gilroy, and Blake (2004) had people view a brief visual sequence in which the light and dark bars of a grating switched positions rapidly but unpredictably over time. This pattern of switches created a visual rhythm that uniquely defined each sequence. People viewed two successive visual rhythm sequences and judged whether or not the two were identical. Guttman and associates found

A) poorer performance when the visual rhythms were accompanied by an unrelated auditory rhythm.
B) poorer performance when the visual rhythms were accompanied by a related auditory rhythm.
C) better performance when the visual rhythms were accompanied by an unrelated auditory rhythm.
D) better performance when the visual rhythms were accompanied by a related auditory rhythm.

Question 53

Shams, Kamitami, and Shimojo (2001) briefly flashed a spot of light, sometimes only once and other times twice or more in rapid succession either unaccompanied by sound or accompanied by brief, auditory clicks. They found that,

A) when there was no sound, people accurately reported the number of flashes.
B) when there was sound, people accurately reported the number of flashes.
C) when people heard two clicks, a single visual flash was perceived as two successive flashes.
D) all of these

Question 54

A device employing sonification is the

A) cell phone.
B) display on a sound system showing changes in frequency and intensity as music plays.
C) television.
D) Geiger counter.

Question 55

In 1688, Molyneux posed this problem to Locke: Suppose that a congenitally blind man has learned to distinguish and name a sphere and a cube by touch alone. Then imagine that this man suddenly recovers his sight. Will he be able to distinguish both objects by sight and to say which is the sphere and which the cube? Locke answered,

A) yes.
B) no.
C) maybe.
D) it depends.

Question 56

Describe three reasons why someone might develop a hearing loss.

Question 57

Explain how cochlear implants are intended to restore hearing and why they are considered controversial.

Question 58

Suppose one band of noise impairs a person's ability to detect a tone, but a different band of noise does not impair detection. How do you explain this differential effectiveness of the two noises?

Question 59

Explain what the loudness matching method reveals about the relationship between frequency and perceived loudness.

Question 60

What is the missing fundamental, and what does it tell us about pitch perception?

Question 61

Why should placement of the eyes in the head (frontal versus lateral) be related to acuity of sound localization?

Question 62

Describe a sonification technique designed to allow blind people to see with their ears.