PSYC 100 Chapter 10: PSYCH 100 week 10 online lesson

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Katherine Fretz

Document Summary

Topic 1: the auditory system: describe how the structure of our auditory system affects the way we interpret the world around us. Identify which physical characteristics of sound correspond to which psychological characteristics: amplitude of a sound wave determines the sound"s intensity. Height of the peak: compression occurs at the peaks and rarefactions at the throughs of the waveform. Intensity measured in decibels (db), a logarithmic scale: decibels de ne the difference between two sounds in terms of the ratio between their sound pressures. A 10:1 sound pressure ratio is 20 db. A 100:1 ratio is 40 db: if one sound is 40 db more intense than another, it has a sound pressure that is 100 times larger. Responsible for loudness: frequency (directly calculated from wavelength) Most sounds consist of many different frequencies, which can be shown in a spectrum. Frequency is the distance from the peak to peak.