Acoustic Perception Research Articles

The Formation and Cultivation of the Inner Hearing of Music

Music is the art of hearing, and inner hearing is the core of music hearing. Inner hearing is formed, developed and perfected gradually with all kinds of musical practical skills, and its implicit operation process is achieved in the cooperative activities of external sound stimulation and internal auditory experience. The cultivation of inner hearing is one of the primary parts of music skill learning. Developing the acoustic perception image and perfecting music auditory representation should be the first principle to cultivate the inner hearing.

Language experience outweighs perceptual enhancement in category learning

Some theorists claim that cues that contribute to the same acoustic percept are naturally coupled in category learning. In contrast, others claim that no pairs of cues are privileged in this way, and listeners simply learn cue correlations from language input. We compared the cue weighting and cue-shifting between pitch and breathiness, which are enhancing but do not signal a phonemic contrast in English (Experiment I), and pitch and closure duration, which are not enhancing but are correlated in signaling the English voicing contrast (Experiment II). When the cues were enhancing but not contrastive, English listeners successfully learned to weight the more informative cue higher. In contrast, preliminary results show that listeners have difficulty weighting the informative cue higher when the two cues are not enhancing but only contrastive. Results suggest that language experience outweighs auditory enhancement relationships in the perceptual coupling of cues.

Acoustic characteristics and perception of voiced and voiceless nasals in Mizo and Angami

This study compares and contrasts acoustic characteristics (e.g., nasal murmur’s formant and anti-formant frequencies, vowel formant frequencies, bandwidths, spectral tilts, etc.) of voiced and voiceless nasals in Mizo and Angami, Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in North-East India. Mizo contrasts voiced and voiceless nasals at the bilabial, alveolar, and velar places of articulation, whereas Angami contrasts them at four different places of articulation: bilabial, alveolar, velar, and palatal. Similar to voiceless nasals previously described for Burmese (Danstuji,1984; Bhaskararao & Ladefoged,1991), in Mizo, voiceless nasal murmur is followed by a period of voiced nasal murmur as it transitions into the following vowel, while it remains voiceless throughout in Angami. Results of a perception experiment also suggests that the voiced nasal murmur portion in Mizo voiceless nasals aided the identification of its place of articulation, but a heavier perceptual load is placed on the following vowel for place id...

Localization and Spatial Discrimination in Children and Adolescents with Moderate Sensorineural Hearing Loss Tested without Their Hearing Aids

The present study investigated two measures of spatial acoustic perception in children and adolescents with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) tested without their hearing aids and compared it to age-matched controls. Auditory localization was quantified by means of a sound source identification task and auditory spatial discrimination acuity by measuring minimum audible angles (MAA). Both low- and high-frequency noise bursts were employed in the tests to separately address spatial auditory processing based on interaural time and intensity differences. In SNHL children, localization (hit accuracy) was significantly reduced compared to normal-hearing children and intraindividual variability (dispersion) considerably increased. Given the respective impairments, the performance based on interaural time differences (low frequencies) was still better than that based on intensity differences (high frequencies). For MAA, age-matched comparisons yielded not only increased MAA values in SNHL children, but also no decrease with increasing age compared to normal-hearing children. Deficits in MAA were most apparent in the frontal azimuth. Thus, children with SNHL do not seem to benefit from frontal positions of the sound sources as do normal-hearing children. The results give an indication that the processing of spatial cues in SNHL children is restricted, which could also imply problems regarding speech understanding in challenging hearing situations.

Effects of indoor temperature and background noise on floor impact noise perception

This study investigates effects of room air temperature and background noise on the perception of floor impact noises in a room. Floor impact noises were recorded in apartment buildings and were presented in an indoor climate chamber with background noise for subjective evaluation. Thirty-two participants were subjected to all combinations of three thermal conditions (20%C, 25%C, 30%C and relative humidity 50%), four background noise types (Babble, Fan, Traffic and Water), three background noise levels (35 dBA, 40 dBA and 45 dBA) and four floor impact noises (Man Jumping, Children Running, Man Running and Chair Scraping). After a 1-h thermal adaptation period for each thermal condition, the participants were asked to evaluate their thermal and acoustic perceptions. Statistically significant effects were found for the room air temperature and background noise level on the perception of the floor impact noises. Noisiness, loudness and complaints of floor impact noise increased with increasing room temperature and background noise level. Annoyance of floor impact noise showed a peak in acceptable thermal environment for general comfort. Room air temperature was a dominant non-auditory factor contributing to floor impact noise annoyance, while the floor impact noise level influenced the floor impact noise loudness and the floor impact noisiness was almost equally affected by the room temperature, background noise level and floor impact noise level. Further investigation is needed to fully understand the combined perception of floor impact noise under various indoor environmental conditions.

Acoustic analysis and perception of emotions in hindi speech using words and sentences

This paper presents a study related to perceptual evaluation of emotions expressed in Hindi speech and their acoustic prosodic correlates. Six emotions i.e. Neutral, Happiness, Sad, Fear, Anger and Surprise were selected for the present study. For this purpose, a database of fifteen continuous sentences and isolated words i.e. Hindi digits ‘शनय, एक, दो, तीन चार, पाच, छः, सात, आठ, नौ’ spoken by five males and five females repeated three times by each speaker, was created. Understanding the difference between acoustic features for different emotions is important for computer recognition and their classification. For the analysis of acoustic features which changes correspondingly with emotions were analyzed using PRATT speech processing software tool. Human perception experiment shows that the overall recognition of the emotions is about 60% for continuous sentences and 53% for isolated words. It is found that anger has highest intensity followed by neutral, happiness, surprise, sad and fear. Some differences were observed in case of continuous sentences. The dynamic changes in the pitch and intensity in these utterances have been analyzed.

Audio-Visual Preferences and Tranquillity Ratings in Urban Areas

During a survey related to acoustic and visual perception of users of urban areas, 614 people have been interviewed in Pisa (Italy). The work aims to identify and quantify the effects of parameters influencing the perception of tranquillity in order to understand the soundscape and to propose a method based on the perception of tranquillity for the detection of quiet areas within urban ones. A linear model that predicts the tranquillity perceived in different environments, based on their visual and acoustic characteristics, is proposed. Users were interviewed by operators inside the areas, using a direct approach of standardized questionnaires and oral questions. Simultaneous noise measurements and soundwalks have been performed, together with visual registrations. The linear model obtained predicts the perceived tranquillity based on the statistical level LA10 (A-weighted noise level exceeded for 10% of the measurement time) the sound sources and visual elements. The perceived tranquillity results negatively correlated to LA10 and to the presence of sound sources or negative visual elements. The presence of beneficial sound sources is positively correlated to the perceived tranquillity. However, the effect of the noise level is regulated by environmental characteristics. Perceived tranquillity is proposed as an indicator to identify quiet areas in the urban environment, according to European Directive 49/2002/EC. The obtained model identifies the areas that would get a higher tranquillity value than a fixed threshold value and therefore would be perceived as quiet. The model can be used as a cost-benefit analysis support tool to identify the best solution between the reduction of noise levels and the regeneration of urban areas, referring to the tranquillity perceived by the users.

Information Requirements of Society and Expressivity of Audiovisual Media

Contemporary realization of enlightenment tasks of TV is considered in the article in context of cultural contradictions, stimulated by screen mediation of social communications. The request of society for audiovisual information grows outside mass media today: it has entered into document flow, mediates social ritual, in a new way enters culture. At the same time there is a devaluation of authenticity of a documentary shot in television practice, complication of the visual figurativeness built around oral forms of expression. The culture of oral communication presupposes that TV shows are meant mainly for acoustical perception, submitting their visual component to the spontaneity of oral speech at the different levels. To the person, whose social activity, work, daily routine are mediated by screen and do not lose at the same time their authenticity, today it is harder and harder to differentiate the sphere of journalism or art as conditional, "other" environments in which he himself becomes an object of the influence, a target of transformed audiovisual representation of reality. Broadcasters by all means raise the perceptual attractiveness of content in fight for the viewer, whose own activity grows in the media field and his communicative status loses definiteness. At the same time the priority of enlightenment tasks even in political segment of broadcasting is lost, and the social mission of the leading TV channels in audiovisual communication becomes doubtful.

Hunt-ing for new therapies: From red blood cells to acoustic nanobubbles

The Acoustical Society has undoubtedly nurtured me through all key stages of my career. I attended my first ASA meeting as the last doctoral student of noise acoustician Prof. Shon Ffowcs Williams, working on acoustic scattering from red blood cells to detect hemolysis. At a time when I was questioning whether research in general and acoustics in particular were right for me, the unexpected award of the biomedical acoustics student prize (Atlanta, 2000) and a chance meeting with my future Hunt fellowship mentor, Prof. Ron Roy, radically changed my outlook. Until that point, my perception of biomedical acoustics had been confined to diagnostic applications, but discovering the emerging therapeutic potential of focused ultrasound and acoustic cavitation made me realize that it was possible for an acoustician to impact key aspects of human health, such as treating cancer or facilitating orthopedic surgery. Much of the training and inspiration of my Hunt fellowship year at Boston University (2002–2003) travel...

Regular Exposure to Cowbells Affects the Behavioral Reactivity to a Noise Stimulus in Dairy Cows.

In alpine regions, cows are often equipped with bells during pasture season to ensure that farmers can locate them. Constant exposure to the chime of a bell may affect cows’ acoustic perception in general. The aim of this study is to test whether routine bell exposure affects the reactivity to a noise stimulus and might be associated with hearing impairment in cows. For the assessment, behavioral and cardiac indicators were used as indirect measures of hearing capacity. Cows that were either used to wearing a bell or not were exposed to a playback of low and high amplitude (=varying loudness). In addition, we tested whether wearing earplugs, mimicking hearing impairment, reduced the cows’ reactivity toward the playback. On 24 farms, half of them routinely using cowbells, 96 Brown Swiss cows were tested in a 2 × 2 factorial cross-over design (65 or 85 dB, without or with earplugs) in a balanced order. The effects of bell experience, amplitude, and earplugs on the latency to the first behavioral and cardiac response to a 5-s playback were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models, considering dependencies within the data set. Cows reacted faster without earplugs and when they were exposed to 85 dB compared with 65 dB. The proportion of cows leaving the feeding rack after onset of the playback was reduced by bell experience and earplugs and was increased when exposed to 85 dB compared with 65 dB. Exposure without earplugs to 85 dB but not to 65 dB increased heart rate. Heart rate and heart rate variability indicated increased sympathetic activation during the exposure to 85 dB compared with 65 dB. In general, behavioral and cardiac indicators did not indicate severe hearing impairment due to routine bell exposure. The 85-dB stimulus increased arousal and avoidance compared with the 65-dB stimulus, with bell experience and earplugs leading to a general decrease in avoidance of the stimulus. This may reflect an altered acoustic perception of the playback stimulus in dairy cows that are routinely exposed to bells.

Perception and prediction of apparent source width and listener envelopment in binaural spherical microphone array auralizations.

This article deals with the assessment and prediction of the reproduction quality when binaurally auralizing spherical microphone array data for room simulation applications. The auralization is perceptually assessed in a listening experiment using the two attributes, apparent source width (ASW) and listener envelopment (LEV), for spatial quality description, whereas the technical analysis employs a psychoacoustically motivated model for room acoustical perception (RAP) which is specifically designed to estimate ASW and LEV. Both analyses focus on the array configuration in terms of varying modal resolutions and its influence on the spatial reproduction quality. The auralizations comprise three simulated environments, i.e., free-field sound fields as well as a dry and a reverberant room. Ten different audio signals are used as test material. Perceptual results show that the array configuration strongly influences the perception of ASW and LEV which also depends on the reflection properties of the simulated room. The ASW and LEV predictions by the RAP model correlate well with the results from the listening experiment.

Effect of temporary open-air markets on the sound environment and acoustic perception based on the crowd density characteristics

The sound environment and acoustic perception of open-air markets, which are very common in high-density urban open spaces, play important roles in terms of the urban soundscape. Based on objective and subjective measurements of a typical temporary open-air market in Harbin city, China, the effects of the temporary open-air market on the sound environment and acoustic perception were studied, considering different crowd densities. It was observed that a temporary open-air market without zoning increases the sound pressure level and subjective loudness by 2.4dBA and 0.21dBA, respectively, compared to the absence of a temporary market. Different from the sound pressure level and subjective loudness, the relationship between crowd density and the perceived acoustic comfort is parabolic. Regarding the effect of a temporary open-air market with different zones on the sound environment and acoustic perception, when the crowd densities were the same, subjective loudness in the fruit and vegetable sales area was always higher than in the food sales area and the clothing sales area. In terms of acoustic comfort, with an increase in crowd density, acoustic comfort in the fruit and vegetable sales area decreased, and acoustic comfort in the food sales area and the clothing sales area exhibited a parabolic change trend of increase followed by decrease. Overall, acoustic comfort can be effectively improved by better planning temporary open-air markets in high-density urban open spaces.

Transcranial Random Noise Stimulation (tRNS) Shapes the Processing of Rapidly Changing Auditory Information.

Neural oscillations in the gamma range are the dominant rhythmic activation pattern in the human auditory cortex. These gamma oscillations are functionally relevant for the processing of rapidly changing acoustic information in both speech and non-speech sounds. Accordingly, there is a tight link between the temporal resolution ability of the auditory system and inherent neural gamma oscillations. Transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) has been demonstrated to specifically increase gamma oscillation in the human auditory cortex. However, neither the physiological mechanisms of tRNS nor the behavioral consequences of this intervention are completely understood. In the present study we stimulated the human auditory cortex bilaterally with tRNS while EEG was continuously measured. Modulations in the participants’ temporal and spectral resolution ability were investigated by means of a gap detection task and a pitch discrimination task. Compared to sham, auditory tRNS increased the detection rate for near-threshold stimuli in the temporal domain only, while no such effect was present for the discrimination of spectral features. Behavioral findings were paralleled by reduced peak latencies of the P50 and N1 component of the auditory event-related potentials (ERP) indicating an impact on early sensory processing. The facilitating effect of tRNS was limited to the processing of near-threshold stimuli while stimuli clearly below and above the individual perception threshold were not affected by tRNS. This non-linear relationship between the signal-to-noise level of the presented stimuli and the effect of stimulation further qualifies stochastic resonance (SR) as the underlying mechanism of tRNS on auditory processing. Our results demonstrate a tRNS related improvement in acoustic perception of time critical auditory information and, thus, provide further indices that auditory tRNS can amplify the resonance frequency of the auditory system.

Effects of typical dining styles on conversation behaviours and acoustic perception in restaurants in China

The acoustic environment of restaurants is important for diners. Based on acoustic measurements and a questionnaire survey of typical restaurants, differences in diners' conversation behaviour and acoustic perception were analysed. Three dining styles were compared (centralized, separate, and dispersed), and crowd density and background music were considered. Several interesting findings were gained. First, dining styles affected conversation behaviour. When there were four or more diners per table, conversation increased compared to when there were three or fewer; and background music did not reduce conversation. With the centralized style, the proportion of speech diners heard was greater than for the other two dining styles, even as crowd density increased. Second, dining styles affected sound pressure level. With background music, the separate style decreased sound pressure level more effectively than the other two styles when crowd density was low, and without background music, the separate style decreased sound pressure level more effectively than the other two dining styles irrespective of crowd density. Dining styles also affected acoustic comfort: with the centralized and separate styles, acoustic comfort took on a parabolic shape, first increasing and then decreasing as crowd density increased, while with the dispersed style, as crowd density increased, the acoustic comfort of diners decreased.

Comparison of listener preference in concert halls from the stage and the audience

The perception of concert hall acoustics has been studied extensively from the perspective of the audience, but less extensively from the perspective of the musicians performing on stage. In this study, impulse response measurements were conducted in a group of eight concert and recital halls in the northeastern United States. A multi-channel microphone array was used to measure listening positions both on the stage and in the audience. The impulse responses recorded with the microphone array were used to generate auralizations for playback over multi-channel loudspeaker arrays, to investigate listeners’ and musicians’ preferences via listening tests. The audience positions were presented to the test subjects via static, pre-convolved auralizations. For the stage positions, all test subjects were musicians who, during the course of the test, performed on their instruments and heard the resulting auralizations from the stages of the different concert halls, generated in real-time. The results allowed for a...

The perceptual evaluation of acoustical environments II: Natural environments

The perceptual evaluation of natural acoustic environments requires an assessment of the “room acoustical impression.” After some theoretical considerations on the nature of this perceptional construct and the shortcomings of existing tools, we present a new, empirically substantiated approach for the development of a corresponding measuring instrument. It relies crucially on the room acoustical simulation of a representative pool of acoustical environments for speech and music and their auralization for different acoustical sources. The resulting room acoustical quality inventory, together with a database of room acoustical models and their monaural and binaural transfer functions, can be used as a ground truth for room acoustical analysis and perception.

A room acoustical quality inventory

In a two-step procedure, a new psychological measuring instrument has been developed for the acoustical perception of room acoustical environments for speech and music. As a first step, an expert focus group of room acoustical scholars and consultants was formed in order to reach a consensus on a vocabulary as complete as possible to describe room acoustical qualities. In a second step, this inventory was used for the evaluation of 35 different simulated room acoustical environments presented by binaural synthesis to 190 subjects of different age and expert level. Based on the ratings of this room sample, a comprehensive psychometric analysis was performed in order to evaluate the preliminary item battery with respect to reliability, discriminative power, and redundancy. The resulting room acoustical quality inventory, together with the database of room acoustical models as well as their monaural and binaural transfer functions and their perceptual evaluation, can be used as a ground truth for the validation of existing and newly developed room acoustical parameters.

Influence of visual rendering on the acoustic judgments of a theater auralization

Auralizations have become more prevalent in architectural acoustics. Auralizations in listening tests are typically presented in a uni-modal fashion (audio only). However, in everyday-life one perceives complex multi-modal information. Multi-sensory research has shown that visuals can influence auditory perceptions, such as with the McGurk and ventriloquist effects. However, few studies have investigated the influence of visuals on room acoustic perception. Additionally, in the majority of previous studies, visual cues were represented by photographs either with or without visuals of the source. Previously, a virtual reality framework combining a visible animated source in a virtual room with auralizations was conceived enabling multi-modal assessments. The framework is based on BlenderVR scene graph and visual rendering with MaxMSP for the real-time audio rendering of 3rd order HOA room impulse responses (RIRs) in tracked binaural. CATT-Acoustic TUCT was used to generate the HOA RIRs. Using this framework, two listening tests were carried out: (1) a repeat of a prior audio-only test comparing auralizations with dynamic voice directivity to static orientation and (2) a test comparing dynamic voice auralizations with coherent or incoherent visuals with respect to seating position. Results indicate that judgments of several room acoustic attributes are influenced by the presence of visuals.

When the difference between “good” and “great” is 0.5dB—Ponderings of a “Tuning Conductor.”

For many years the author has been privileged to work closely with music directors, their orchestras, and soloists in optimizing the acoustic environment in numerous rooms employing acoustic enhancement. During the process he has learned that even very small changes in energy levels and timing of virtual reflections can make a profound difference in perceived acoustic quality, largely due to masking effects, both in the audience and on the podium. The quick adjustments that can be made utilizing such systems not only make A/B comparisons useful in assessing relative quality, but also as an educational tool informing the designer as to what specific attributes in an impulse response are helpful. This presentation contains a number of illustrative vignettes from his experience as both an acoustician and conductor, including the notion that sometimes the most effective changes to acoustical perception in a concert hall can come from changing how the orchestra plays.

Мотиваційна доцільність використання інтернет-ресурсів під час навчання англійської мови студентів-програмістів

У статті розглянуто можливості використання інтернет-ресурсів у процесі навчання англійської мови студентів-програмістів. Наведено приклади навчальних платформ, на яких представлені дистанційні освітні курси, призначені для студентів спеціальності «Інформаційні технології».Окреслено основні способивпровадження у навчальний процесматеріалів та результатів навчання, отриманих під час проходження курсів. Вказано на шляхи розширення професійних інтересів студентів та мотивації їх самостійної роботи з іноземної мови під час перегляду аутентичних відеоматеріалів, із подальшим відпрацюванням нової лексики. Визначено перспективи досліджень з цієї науково-методичної проблеми.