• Volume/Page
  • Keyword
  • DOI
  • Citation
  • Advanced
   
 
 
 

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

SECTION LISTING

BROWSE VOLUMES

Year Range: 
Search Issue | RSS Feeds RSS
Previous Issue Next Issue

Nov 1990

Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S1-S200

Return to All Sections
back to top
RSS Feeds
back to top Session 3PP: Psychological Acoustics: Temporal, Intensity, and Spectral Resolution in Normal and Impaired Hearing
Contributed Papers
FREE

Perception of transient noise at the abrupt onset of a pure tone (A)

William Morris Hartmann

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S48-S48 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
The transient noise caused by the instantaneous onset of a pure tone depends upon the phase of the tone at onset. Listening experiments show that if the frequency of the tone is low, the onset noise is perceived to be least if the onset is in “sine phase.” If the frequency of the tone is high, the onset noise is least if the onset is in “cosine phase,” a choice that maximizes the discontinuity in the waveform. These results find a simple physical explanation in terms of the power spectra of the abrupt tones. Experimental psychometric functions show that the transition from low‐frequency perception to high‐frequency perception is sharp but rather strongly subject dependent. There is good correlation between transition frequency and high‐frequency thresholds as measured by individual audiograms. The transition frequency can also be manipulated experimentally by using electroacoustical transducers that have different frequency responses. [Work supported by the National Institutes of Health.]
FREE

Effects of energy and spectral cues on discriminability of bursts of reproducible noise (A)

Susan M. Fallon

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S48-S48 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Discriminability of bursts of reproducible noise was measured using a same‐different psychophysical method. Bursts in a pair were identical on “same” trials. On “different” trials, bursts were identical except for τ ms of independent noise located in the middle of the burst pairs. Three burst durations were examined: 1, 10, and 100 ms. Discriminability increased as the duration of the noise bursts increased. Randomly varying the level of each burst of noise impaired performance at all durations. Further experiments examined whether discrimination was based on spectral or energy cues. On each “different” trial, the order of the samples in the first digitized burst was randomized to generate the second burst in a pair. Results showed that, with the exception of the 1‐ms bursts of noise, discrimination was based the spectral shape of the waveform. [Work supported by NIH and AFOSR.]
FREE

Envelope‐weighted average of instantaneous frequency (EWAIF) model applied to narrow bandwidth signals (A)

Lawrence L. Feth

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S48-S48 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
The ability of the auditory system to follow amplitude and frequency fluctuations in complex sounds is essential to the perception of speech and music. The EWAIF model was devised to study this ability using narrow bandwidth signals. Narrow bandwidth signals may vary in amplitude, frequency, or both (simultaneously). In one series of experiments, listeners were asked to distinguish between pairs of frequency‐modulated sinusoids in which the frequency modulation was identical across the pair, but the amplitude modulation was systematically varied. This was accomplished by skewing the waveform envelope of linear FM glides. For another series, amplitude modulation remained the same, but the frequency modulation of the pairs of sinusoids was varied. Here, the frequency trajectory was made to deviate sinusoidally from a linear glide. Listeners are very sensitive to small differences in either envelope skew or frequency trajectory. Performance of listeners with normal hearing will be compared with predictions derived from the EWAIF model. [Work supported by a grant from AFOSR.]
FREE

The pitch of odd‐harmonic tones: Evidence of temporal analysis in the dominance region (A)

James A. Bashford, Jr. and Richard M. Warren

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S48-S48 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Previous studies have shown that tones consisting solely of odd harmonics can produce two types of low pitch, one matching the fundamental frequency and another approximately 1 octave higher. The present study examined the bases of these pitches. Musicians provided matches for odd‐harmonic triads (3rd, 5th, and 7th; 5th, 7th, and 9th;…; 17th, 19th, and 21st) having a common, missing fundamental ranging from 100 to 200 Hz. Low‐order triads were matched to the fundamental, whereas high‐order triads produced pitches approximately 1 octave higher, but deviating from exact doubling of the fundamental by an amount consistent with the waveform pseudoperiodicities. Interestingly, the change from fundamental to pseudoperiod matching occurred with triads centered at about the 9th or 11th harmonic, which have frequency separations approximating those of the dominant partials in an “all‐harmonic” signal. These results, together with neurophysiological evidence in the literature, indicate that harmonics within the dominant region interact sufficiently to provide a temporal basis for pitch. It appears that the dominant region is a transition zone where two modes of pitch analysis overlap. [Work supported by AFOSR and NIH.]
FREE

Discrimination of FM glide direction and slope (A)

Lawrence L. Feth, Mary E. Neill, and Chien Yeh Hsu

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S48-S49 (1990); (2 pages)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Transitions of the second formant in speech sounds have been called the single most important carrier of linguistic information in the speech signal [Liberman et al., Psychol. Rev. 74, 431–461 (1967)]. Both the direction and the slope of the formant transition may be essential in cuing place of articulation, for example. Attempts to study listener performance in laboratory tasks that use frequency‐modulated tones to “simulate” such formant transitions are often confounded by pitch differences between the signals to be discriminated. A procedure analogous to the “roving level” procedure used in profile analysis and intensity perception studies to counter the influence of this pitch artifact has been devised. In a two‐cue, two‐alternative forced‐choice (2Q, 2AFC) paradigm, listeners are asked to determine which FM glide differed either in direction or in rate of transition (slope). For each listening interval, the starting frequency of the glide is randomly chosen from a uniform rectangular distribution centered on fc. Because each glide in the trial begins on a random frequency, the listener cannot use pitch differences to determine glide direction or slope. The current version of the program operates three simultaneous adaptive‐tracking rules, with signals generated in real time using an Ariel DSP‐16 board. Preliminary results for fc from 250 through 4000 Hz, and glide durations from 25 through 100 ms, will be presented. [Work supported by a grant from AFOSR.]
FREE

Effects of adding frequency differences to temporal patterns on detection and recognition (A)

Daniel L. Weber

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S49-S49 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Temporal patterns were generated as sequences of 1‐kHz sinusoids with different durations and temporal separations. Tonal patterns were generated as sequences of 100‐ms sinusoids with different frequencies. Testing four‐and seven‐component temporal patterns led to recognition performance below that predicted by the detection/recognition theorem [Starr et al., Radiology 116, 533–538 (1975)]; listeners demonstrated performance at predicted levels when tonal patterns in different frequency regions were tested. To examine how frequency differences might improve performance for the temporal patterns, hybrid patterns were created by (1) adding a new component with a different frequency to each temporal pattern and (2) changing the frequencies of different numbers of components in the temporal patterns to match those used in the tonal patterns. Although individual differences were large, a characteristic of research with the detection/recognition theorem, the addition of a different frequency component generally raised detection performance but did not improve recognition performance beyond the level predicted by this increase in signal detectability. In contrast, the combination of temporal and tonal patterns led to a relative improvement in recognition performance that was not accounted for by the theorem and resulted in performance much better than for either temporal or tonal patterns alone. [Research supported by AFOSR through WPAFB AAMRL/BBA.]
FREE

Selective attention in absolute pitch listeners (A)

Lyne Plamondon and Ervin R. Hafter

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S49-S49 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
The role of attention in detection under conditions of frequency uncertainty has been extensively studied in a masking paradigm using auditory cues to alleviate the uncertainty. Studies of cues requiring higher‐order processing, for example, cues related to the signal in a fixed musical relation, show that such cues can be as effective as iconic (same frequency) cues [E. R. Halter and R. S. Schlauch, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 86, S112 (1989)]. Reported here is further evidence for higher‐order processing in cuing. Subjects with absolute pitch (AP) detected pure tones in noise in conditions with (1) no cues, (2) iconic cues, or (3) visual cues intended to operate through auditory memory. Visual cues consisted of various symbols corresponding to the frequency of the signal presented in musical notation on a display terminal. In all cases, these were better than no cues and in the most effective cases, the visual cues were as effective as the iconic (auditory) cues. These experiments reflect upon the representation of frequency in AP listeners. [Work supported by NINCDS.]
FREE

Rules for the combination of excitation patterns (A)

Larry E. Humes and Lidia W. Lee

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S49-S49 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Excitation patterns derived from masking patterns measured for single‐component maskers have been used frequently to estimate the excitation patterns for multicomponent stimuli, such as vowels. In doing so, one essentially derives excitation patterns for each component of the multicomponent stimulus and then combines the separate patterns using linear power summation. Thus, if the excitation patterns for two adjacent components of a multicomponent stimulus produce the same amount of excitation at a given location, then the combined excitation would be 3 dB greater. Recent modeling of masking additivity [L. E. Humes and W. Jesteadt, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 85, 1285–1294 (1989)], however, suggests that such a linear combination rule is inappropriate and will underestimate the excitation for multicomponent stimuli. To evaluate this possibility, masking patterns were obtained for noise low‐pass filtered at 1400 Hz, bandpass filtered from 2500–2800 Hz, and high‐pass filtered at 4000 Hz. Masking patterns were obtained for each masker separately, for each possible two‐masker combination, and for the three‐musket stimulus. Results are discussed in terms of the rules used to combine excitation patterns. [Work supported by NIH.]
FREE

On the frequency regions governing overshoot (A)

Sid P. Bacon

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S49-S49 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Detectability of a brief, high‐frequency tone can improve as the onset of that tone is delayed relative to the onset of a long‐duration, broadband noise masker. This effect, known as overshoot, is, in part, consistent with adaptation at the auditory nerve, although recent psychophysical experiments suggest that other mechanisms also may be involved. To gain more insight into the mechanisms underlying overshoot, several experiments were designed primarily to manipulate the spectral properties of a 200‐ms noise precursor (N0 = 20 dB SPL) whose offset preceded the onset of a 400‐ms noise masker (N0 = 20 dB SPL) by 1 ms. Depending upon its spectral composition, the precursor could reduce or eliminate overshoot by reducing threshold near masker onset. The assumption here is that the frequency regions of the precursor that reduce overshoot are those that are, in turn, responsible for overshoot. The results indicate that overshoot is governed by a relatively large frequency region that is clearly not confined to the 4.0‐kHz signal frequency region, and that frequency regions above the signal are more important for overshoot than are frequency regions below the signal. [Work supported by NIDCD.]
FREE

Overshoot in subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment (A)

Sid P. Bacon

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S50-S50 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Overshoot was measured in both ears in subjects with normal hearing and in subjects with unilateral high‐frequency, sensorineural hearing loss by measuring threshold for a 10‐ms signal presented 1 or 195 ms after the onset of a 400‐ms broadband noise masker. Masker spectrum level was 20, 30, or 40 dB SPL. At 4.0 kHz, where absolute thresholds were elevated in the impaired ears, overshoot (the difference between thresholds at 1 and 195 ms) was small or absent. This may indicate that hearing loss alters a mechanism contributing to overshoot, or it may reflect the fact that sufficient amounts of masking (greater than about 20 dB) could not be produced except at high masker levels, where overshoot can be small or absent in normal ears [S. P. Bacon, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. (in press)]. In addition, overshoot was smaller at 1.0 kHz in the impaired ear than in the normal ear of the unilaterally impaired subjects, despite the fact that absolute thresholds were normal at that frequency. This, too, may reflect a damaged peripheral mechanism, or it may reflect the normal consequence of a relatively narrow, “effective” masker bandwidth. [Work supported by NIDCD.]
FREE

Variability of the slope of the loudness function in normal and impaired hearing (A)

Rhona P. Hellman and Carol H. Meiselman

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S50-S50 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
The variability of the slope of the loudness function was determined within and across groups of people with normal and impaired hearing. Slope values were obtained from magnitude estimation and production of loudness and from cross‐modality matching and magnitude estimation of apparent length. Loudness judgments were made for 1‐s tone bursts at a frequency in the 500‐ to 2000‐Hz range by more than 30 people from the general population with normal hearing in the midfrequency region. Twenty people also judged loudness at three frequencies in the same ear, two in the region of impaired heating and one in the region of normal hearing. Over a wide stimulus range, the relation between loudness and sound pressure for normal hearing was a power function with a slope in log‐log coordinates close to 0.60. Both the means and standard deviations of the slopes increased with the degree of hearing loss. These results are compared to those reported in a current paper [R. P. Hellman and C. H. Meiselman, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 88 (in press)] for five different groups, one with normal hearing and four with noise‐induced cochlear impairments. [Work supported by the Rehabilitation Research and Development Service of the VA.]
FREE

Level discrimination of tones as a function of duration for normal and cochlearly impaired listeners (A)

Mary Florentine and Søren Buus

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S50-S50 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Difference limens for level (ΔL = 20 log[(p = Δp)/p], where p is pressure) were measured as a function of duration in seven normal and six cochlearly impaired ears. Stimuli were tones ranging from 0.25 to 14 kHz and broadband noise. Stimulus durations ranged from 2 ms to 2 s and the stimulus power was held constant. Rise and fall times were 1 ms. The interstimulus interval was 250 ms. Levels ranged from 30 to 90 dB SPL. An adaptive two‐alternative force‐choice procedure with feedback was used. For both normal and impaired listeners, ΔL's decreased as duration increased up to 1 or 2 s, except for broadband noise and tones at 250 Hz. For the latter stimuli, ΔL stopped decreasing at about 0.5 s. In a double logarithmic plot of ΔL versus duration, the rate of decrease is generally well fitted by a sloping line. The slope is about the same for normal and impaired listeners. For all listeners and conditions, it is considerably shallower than the −0.5 slope predicted for an optimum detector. These results are similar to earlier results for normal listeners [M. Florentine, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 79, 792–798 (1986)]. The similarity of the effect of duration on ΔL's in normal and impaired listeners contrasts with the abnormal temporal integration functions generally obtained for impaired listeners at absolute threshold. [Work supported by NIDCD.]
FREE

Auditory filters in noise‐masked normal and hearing‐impaired listeners (A)

Marjorie R. Leek and W. Van Summers

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S50-S50 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
It has been suggested that the poorer‐than‐normal frequency resolution often observed in hearing‐impaired listeners is a direct result of the sensitivity loss and the high stimulus levels required for testing these listeners, rather than an additional processing deficit. The purpose of this study was to determine whether continuous noise masking simulating a hearing impairment in normal‐heating listeners results in auditory filter bandwidths similar to those found in hearing‐impaired listeners. Auditory filter characteristics were determined using a notched noise method, assuming a rounded exponential form of the filter. Measurements were made at center frequencies at 500 and 2000 Hz, under conditions of quiet and for two levels of continuous background noise. At 500 Hz, filter bandwidths remained almost constant with increasing threshold levels, with little filter asymmetry. In contrast, at 2000 Hz, normal‐hearing listeners' bandwidths increased somewhat when thresholds were elevated by the continuous noise, but remained smaller than bandwidths for heating‐impaired listeners with similar thresholds. These data, therefore, do not support the assumption that the impaired frequency resolution of hearing‐impaired listeners is totally attributable to their reduced sensitivity. [Work supported by NIH.]
FREE

Measuring auditory filters efficiently (A)

Wouter A. Dreschler and A. Rens Leeuw

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S50-S50 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Knowledge of the frequency‐resolving power of an individual's ear may be helpful in hearing aid selection and in adjustment of multichannel hearing aids. A method using threshold measurements with notched noises, developed by Patterson, has been adopted as the best method. Patterson proved that the filter form can be assumed to be composed of two rounded exponential functions: W(g) = (1 − r) (1 + pg) × exp(− pg) + r, where g is the relative deviation from the filter center frequency for off‐frequency listening, p defines the steepness of one of the filter skirts, and r limits the dynamic range of the filter. Up until now, auditory filters have been measured very precisely in conjunction with research requiring many threshold measurements. In clinical work, time is an important factor. For this reason we investigated the effect of a reduction of the number of threshold measurements on fitted filter characteristics. Filter estimates of 33 subjects (normal hearing, sensorineurally hearing impaired, and conductively hearing impaired) for three different measurement conditions have been analyzed. First, thresholds measured with five symmetrical and eight asymmetrical noises determined the parameters of the filter precisely. Second, the parameters were calculated with a reduced number of thresholds. Third, an alternative fitting procedure was employed. The influence of the reduction of the thresholds on the filter parameters, the effects of the alternative fitting procedure, and the need for retest measurements will be discussed.
back to top Session 3PP. Psychological Acoustics: Temporal, Intensity, and Spectral Resolution in Normal and Impaired Hearing
FREE

Reliability of pure‐tone detection thresholds for clinical and 2IFC procedures in quiet and in a noise background (A)

Lynne Marshall, Thomas E. Hanna, and Richard H. Wilson

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 88, Issue S1, pp. S51-S51 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 14 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Standard deviations reported for clinical (CLIN) procedures generally are higher than those reported for adaptive 2IFC procedures although the two have not previously been directly compared for the same conditions and subjects. One of the differences between the two procedures is size, with the clinical procedure using a 5‐dB step size and the 2IFC procedure using a 2‐dB step size. This experiment measured CLIN and 2IFC thresholds with 2‐ and 5‐dB step sizes in quiet and in a background of 4‐kHz low‐pass filtered noise (spectrum level of 20 dB re:. 20μPA) for nine normal‐hearing listeners. Each condition had ten replications. The results showed that step size had no effect on the standard deviation across replications. The CLIN standard deviations were about 40% higher than the 2IFC standard deviations. Also, the quiet background resulted in standard deviations about 25% higher than those in noise. CLIN procedures are more efficient (in terms of sweat factors) than 2IFC procedures, albeit subject to criterion bias. The measured reliability of these procedures is affected both by limitations inherent in the psychophysical procedures and variation of thresholds across blocks. The data are consistent with larger threshold variation across blocks in quiet than in noise.
Return to All Sections
Close

Home Publications Meetings Contact ASA Site Map Back to Top

Copyright © Acoustical Society of America

close