Sound Design Psychoacoustics and Sound Perception

Question 1

What does psychoacoustics primarily study?

Accepted Answer

The human perception and psychological responses to sound

Answer

Psychoacoustics is the scientific study of how humans perceive sound and how the brain processes auditory information.

Question 2

The Fletcher-Munson equal loudness contours demonstrate that:

Accepted Answer

Human hearing is less sensitive to very low and very high frequencies at low volumes

Answer

Fletcher-Munson curves show that at low SPLs, the ear is less sensitive to bass and treble, requiring more energy at those frequencies to sound equally loud.

Question 3

What is the threshold of hearing (0 dB SPL) defined as?

Accepted Answer

The quietest sound that can be detected by a young, healthy human ear

Answer

0 dB SPL is the reference pressure (approximately 20 micropascals) corresponding to the softest sound a healthy human ear can detect.

Question 4

The Haas effect (Precedence Effect) states that two identical sounds arriving within 1–40ms are perceived as:

Accepted Answer

A single sound localized to the direction of the first arrival

Answer

The Haas effect describes how the auditory system fuses early reflections with the direct sound, localizing everything to the first-arriving source.

Question 5

Auditory masking occurs when:

Accepted Answer

One sound makes it more difficult or impossible to hear another sound

Answer

Auditory masking happens when one sound (the masker) reduces the auditory system's ability to detect another sound (the target), due to overlapping frequency or timing.

Sound Design Practice Test

Sound Design Practice Test

Sound Design Psychoacoustics and Sound Perception