PSY3051 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Background Noise, Acoustic Shadow, Motility
23 Aug 2018
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Week 5 sound, the auditory system, and pitch perception. Pressure waves and perceptual experience t(cid:449)o defi(cid:374)itio(cid:374)s of (cid:862)sou(cid:374)d(cid:863: physical definition sound is created by pressure changes in the air or other medium, perceptual definition sound is the experience we have when we hear. Pure tone created by a sine wave: amplitude difference in pressure between high and low peaks of wave (i. e. size of the pressure change) Perception of amplitude is loudness: decibel (db) is used as the measure of loudness (relates to sound pressure, number of db = 20* logarithm. The decibel scale relates the amplitude of the stimulus with the psychological experience of loudness. Both pure and some complex tones are periodic tones. Fundamental frequency is the repetition rate and is called the first harmonic. Periodic complex tones consist of a number of pure tones called harmonics: additional harmonics are multiples of the fundamental frequency. Additive synthesis process of adding harmonics to create complex sounds.
