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Related Concept Videos

Perception of Sound Waves01:01

Perception of Sound Waves

The human ear is not equally sensitive to all frequencies in the audible range. It may perceive sound waves with the same pressure but different frequencies as having different loudness. Moreover, the perception of sound waves depends on the health of an individual's ears, which decays with age. The health of one's ears may also be affected by regular exposure to loud noises.
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same frequency...
Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location01:21

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

The human brain perceives pitch through two primary mechanisms reflected in place theory and frequency theory. Each mechanism describes how sound waves are interpreted as specific pitches by the brain, offering insights into the intricate processes of auditory perception.
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by identifying...
Sound Waves01:01

Sound Waves

Sound waves can be thought of as fluctuations in the pressure of a medium through which they propagate. Since the pressure also makes the medium's particles vibrate along its direction of motion, the waves can be modeled as the displacement of the medium's particles from their mean position.
Sound waves are longitudinal in most fluids because fluids cannot sustain any lateral pressure. In solids, however, shear forces help in propagating the disturbance in the lateral direction as well. Hence,...
Velocity and Acceleration of a Wave00:51

Velocity and Acceleration of a Wave

A wave propagates through a medium with a constant speed, known as a wave velocity. It is different from the speed of the particles of the medium, which is not constant. In addition, the velocity of the medium is perpendicular to the velocity of the wave. The variable speed of the particles of the medium implies that there must be acceleration associated with it. 
The velocity of the particles can be obtained by taking the partial derivative of the position equation with respect to time. We can...
Intensity and Pressure of Sound Waves01:05

Intensity and Pressure of Sound Waves

The intensity of sound waves can be related to displacement and pressure amplitudes by using their wave expressions and the definition of intensity. The critical step to achieve this is to write the power delivered by the particles on the wave as the product of force and velocity and simplify the force per unit area as the pressure. The velocity of the medium's particles can be derived from the displacement.
Unlike the time average of a sinusoidal term, which is zero since it is positive and...
Beats01:09

Beats

The study of music provides many examples of the superposition of waves and the constructive and destructive interference that occurs. Very few examples of music being performed consist of a single source playing a single frequency for an extended period of time. A single frequency of sound for an extended period might be monotonous to the point of irritation, similar to the unwanted drone of an aircraft engine or a loud fan. Music is pleasant and exciting due to mixing the changing frequencies...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Echo Particle Image Velocimetry
16:31

Echo Particle Image Velocimetry

Published on: December 27, 2012

Velocity perception for sounds moving in frequency space.

Molly J Henry1, J Devin McAuley

  • 1Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA. henrymol@msu.edu

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics
|January 25, 2011
PubMed
Summary

Perceived sound velocity depends on frequency and time changes. Continuous pitch changes rely equally on frequency and time, while discrete changes primarily use time, not frequency, for velocity perception.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychoacoustics
  • Auditory Perception
  • Signal Processing

Background:

  • Perceived velocity of auditory stimuli is influenced by changes in frequency (Δf) and time (Δt).
  • Understanding the relative contributions of Δf and Δt is crucial for models of auditory perception.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how frequency change (Δf) and time change (Δt) independently contribute to the perceived velocity (Δf/Δt) of sounds.
  • To compare these contributions for continuous frequency changes versus discrete frequency changes.

Main Methods:

  • Three experiments were conducted using auditory stimuli with varying frequency and time changes.
  • Participants rated perceived pitch change velocity on a scale of 0–100.
  • Stimuli included continuous tone glides and discrete tone sequences at velocities from 2 to 14 semitones per second (ST/s).

Main Results:

  • For continuous tone glides, both Δf and Δt cues contributed nearly equally to perceived velocity.
  • For discrete tone sequences, perceived velocity was predominantly based on Δt, with minimal influence from Δf.
  • Experiment 3 confirmed that participants could judge Δf and Δt separately in tone sequences.

Conclusions:

  • The auditory system weights frequency and time cues differently depending on the nature of the sound's frequency change.
  • Perceptual velocity of continuous frequency sweeps relies on both temporal and spectral information.
  • Discrete pitch changes are perceived primarily through their temporal progression rather than their spectral magnitude.