Perception Of Sound & Speech

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2016:

85 hours

Nil

Nil

N/A

N/A

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject covers psychoacoustics, psychophysical measurement, acoustic phonetics, and their relation to audiological practice.

This subject is designed to enable students to:

• understand the relationship between the psychological percepts of loudness, pitch and timbre, and the physically measurable parameters of sound such as intensity (sound pressure level), fundamental frequency, frequency spectrum and duration;
• understand the psychophysical concepts of threshold and difference limen;
• understand the main psychoacoustical methods for determining the detection and discrimination ability of the auditory system;
• understand the current physiological theories of pitch and loudness perception;
• understand binaural processing of sounds in relation to localisation and masking effects;
• understand the way in which speech sounds are produced in the vocal tract; the effect of the position of the articulators (tongue, lips, velum, etc.) on speech sounds and the acoustic principles underlying these effects;
• understand the acoustic features of different speech sounds as they relate to their production and auditory discrimination;
• understand the range of intensity, frequency and temporal components found in normal speech sounds and the effects of inter- and intra- speaker variations;
• understand the effect of intensity, background noise and reverberation on speech perception;
• understand the importance of language ability, semantic, syntactic and phonetic context in speech perception;
• understand the effects of hearing loss on speech perception; the importance of lip-reading in speech perception.

On completion of this subject students should have:

• well developed problem-solving abilities;
• an ability to evaluate and synthesise information in a flexible manner
• an ability to apply research findings to audiological practice;
• a capacity to articulate the knowledge gained in both oral and written formats.

• A short answer test after lecture 18 – 15%
• Acoustic Phonetics Assignment of no more than 500 words due after Acoustic Phonetics Practicum - 15%
• A two hour written examination at the end of the semester – 70%

Hurdle Requirement: Students must pass the written examination in order to pass this subject.

Nil

Moore BCJ. (2003) An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing, 5th edition, Academic Press (out of print) is recommended reading.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On completion of this subject students should have:
• well developed problem solving skills
• an ability to evaluate and synthesise information in a flexible manner
• a capacity to articulate the knowledge gained in both oral and written formats