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69 terms

Speech and Hearing Science Vocab: 3-5

Auditory area
range of human hearing; 20-20000 Hz
unit of measurement for sound intensity
Decibel scale
a logarithmic ratio scale that compares the amplitude and/or intensity of target sound to a standard reference sound; a logarithmis scale is used to measure intensity
rate of vibration of an object; number of cycles per second of a sound wave
power per unit area
Inverse square relationship
intensity varies inversely with the distance from the source; intensity is decreased by the square of the distance change factor
linear scale
scale by which successive unit sincrease by the same amount
logarithmic scale
scale in which successive units increase by increasing amounts
perceptual correlate of intensity
mel scale
unit of putch on a psychophysical scale; a perceptual, subjective scale for pitch
phon scale
a psychoacoustic scale for intensity that uses a 1000 Hz pure tone as the reference frequency; subjective scale for loudness
the perceptual correlate of frequency
study of the relationship between the phsycial properties of a stimulus and our subjective experience of the stimulus
ratio scale
scale that describes relationships between quantities
semitone scale
Western musical scale consisting of 12 pitches, each separated by a semitone
standard reference sound
sounds with amplitude of .0002 dyne/cm2 and intensity of 10-16 W/cm2
frequencies below the range of human hearing
frequencies above range of human hearing
threshold of hearing
sound that a pair of normal human ears can detect 50% of the time under ideal listening conditions
threshold of pain
intensity level of 130 dB, which causes of sensation of pain in the ears
area of positive pressure; collistions of air molecules result in regions of increased density
displacement force
force that cuases a mass to be moved away from equilibrium
a state in whihc opposing dynmaic forces balance each other
longitudinal wave
the particles of the medium move parallel to the direction of the wave
mechanical wave
a wave that requires a medium to propagate itself - sound wave
back and forth movement of an object; vibration
pulse wave
a single disturbance travels through a medium
area of negatieve pressure; regions of decreased density of air particles
restorative force
force that causes a mass to return to equilibrium
sound wave
a mechanical, longitudinal pressure wave that transmits sound
transverse wave
the particles of the mediym move perpendicularly to the direction of the wave
oscillation, a back and forth cyclic movement about some point
damping of a wave with diminishing changes in air pressure due to friction
interface between two mediums
constructive interference
waves that combine and increase the amplitude of the resulting wave; amplifies the rarefaction or an area of compression
destructive interference
waves that combine and decrease the amplitude of the resulting wave; a wave interferes with another wave such that a compression of one wave meets a rarefaction of the other wave and the net effect is to decrease the overall energy
the sound wave bends around an obstacle without going through the boundary
combining of waves in terms of areas of high and low pressure
incident wave
sound wave generated by a vibrating object
the change in the speed and direction of a sounds wave due to inteaction iwith a boundary
wave that collides with a surface and travels back toward the source; the sound wave bounces backward off the boundary
reflected wave
the portion of the energy of a sound wave that returns back after meeting a boundary
process generating a sound that last slightly longer due to interaction of incident and reflected waves
standing wave
a pattern restulting from the interference of an incident and a reflected sound wave that apprears to be standing still
wave front
outermost area of the sound wave propagating spherically through the air
the amount of displacement of an object from its rest position; magnitude of oscillation or height of wave
wave in which cycles do not take the same amount of time to occur; irregular sound wave
complex aperiodic sound
a sound wave consisting of multiple frequencies in which the cycles do not take the same amount of time to occur
complex periodic sound
a sound wave consisting of multiple frequencies in which the cycles take the same amount of time to occur
complex sound
sound with two or more frequencies; a sound wave consisting of two or more pure sounds
cycles per second
number of cycles of vibration occurring in one second, equivalent to frequency
fundamental frequency
lowest frequency of a complex periodic sound; the repetition frequency of a sine wave or a complex pattern
frequencies above F0 in a complex periodic sound, which are integer multiples of the fundamental frequency
unit of measurement of frequency (cycles per second)
a sound wave consisting of multiple frequencies in which the cycles do not take exactly the same amount of time to occue, but a repetitive pattern is apparent
amount of itme consumed by each cycle in a wave; the reciprocal of the frequency, the duration of one cycle
wave in which each cycle take the same amount of time to occur
relative timing of compressions and rarefactions of waves; the point in the cycle of cibration at which the waveform begins
pure tone
sound with only one frequency; a sound wave consisting of energy at a single periodic frequency
simple harmonic motion
a smooth back and forth movement with a characterstic pattern of acceleration though the rest position and deceleration at the end-points of the movement; unifrom ciruclar motion or perioidc motion around a central equilibrium point
Sine wave
pure tone with a sinusoidal shape on a waveform; the simplest waveform
graph with time on the horizontal axis and amplitude on the vertical axis
distance covered by one complete cycle of a wave; distance covered by one cycle of vibration
continuous spectrum
spectrum that contains energy at all frequencies
line that connects the frequencies of a complex sound represented on a spectrum; contour formed by the distplay of engery at each frequency represented in a sound wave
fourier analysis
mathematical procedure to identify the individual sinusoids in a complex sound; a complex mathematical process of decomposing a complex wave into its separate sine waves; a method to transfer the time-series speech waveform into a frequency-based spectrum
line spectrum
graph in which the frequencies in a complex periodic sound are depicted as vertical lines, where the height of the line indicates the amplitude of the compenent frequency
power spectrum
a plot of the power (energy per unit of time) of given frequencies of a sound (same as a line spectrum)
graph with frequnecy on the horixontal axis and amplitude on the vertial axis; line spectrum represents periodic sounds, continuous spectrum represents aperiodic sounds