Biomedical Engineering 403

Absolute and Relative Discriminability of Simple Sounds

Please be familiar with the following topics (for details, refer to Denes & Pinson .

• Place principle
• Frequency selectivity of:
  • Basilar membrane
  • Hair cells
  • Auditory nerve
• Psychophysics
• Fechner's Law of Sensation
• Absolute threshold
• Difference threshold
• Suprathreshold
• Interval of uncertainty (IU)
• Points of subjective equality (PSE)
• The method of limits
• The method of adjustments
• Method of constant stimuli

To be certain that you understand the concepts of psychophysics described within, ask yourself the following questions (if you understand the concepts, the answers should be clear. If you're in doubt, then your grasp of psychophysics could use some polis hing).

What are the units of the absolute threshold? Can the units be in dB? Can the units be in Hz? Must they be one or the other, or can they be either?

Can the mehtod of limits be used to measure the sensitivity of taste buds?

Does the visual system have an absolute threshold? What units might it be in?

Is the number of DISCRETE (i.e., perceptably different) picthes within the human range of hearing finite or infinite? If finite, could this number be calculated? What information would you need?

Dogs can hear frequencies that humans cannot. How could you explain this in psychophysical terms?

No!
Please don't make me go to any of those pages!
I want to go somewhere completely different!