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Related Concept Videos

Hearing01:31

Hearing

When we hear a sound, our nervous system is detecting sound waves—pressure waves of mechanical energy traveling through a medium. The frequency of the wave is perceived as pitch, while the amplitude is perceived as loudness.
Auditory Perception01:17

Auditory Perception

The auditory system is essential for sound perception, utilizing various critical structures. When sound waves enter the outer ear, they travel through the ear canal and cause the eardrum to vibrate. These vibrations are then transmitted to the middle ear, where three tiny bones – the malleus, incus, and stapes – amplify the sound. This amplification is crucial, as it ensures that the sound vibrations are strong enough to be conveyed to the inner ear. These vibrations then reach the cochlea, a...
Auditory Pathway01:15

Auditory Pathway

Auditory pathways constitute the complex neural circuits responsible for transmitting and interpreting auditory information from the peripheral auditory system to the brain. Sound waves are initially captured by the outer ear, funneled through the ear canal, and reach the tympanic membrane (eardrum). These vibrations are transmitted via the middle ear's ossicles to the inner ear's cochlea.
When viewed cross-sectionally, the cochlea reveals the scala vestibuli and scala tympani flanking the...
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...
Factors Affecting Perception01:25

Factors Affecting Perception

Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...
Perception01:28

Perception

Perception is a fundamental psychological process that enables individuals to organize, interpret, and consciously experience sensory information. This process is crucial for understanding and interacting with the world around us. It includes both bottom-up and top-down processing, each playing a distinct role in how we perceive our environment.
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

Assessment of Audio-Tactile Sensory Substitution Training in Participants with Profound Deafness Using the Event-Related Potential Technique
11:39

Assessment of Audio-Tactile Sensory Substitution Training in Participants with Profound Deafness Using the Event-Related Potential Technique

Published on: September 7, 2022

Are auditory percepts determined by experience?

Brian B Monson1, Shui'Er Han, Dale Purves

  • 1Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore. brian.monson@duke-nus.edu.sg

Plos One
|May 14, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Auditory perception may be shaped by past experiences, not just sound physics. The frequency of sound patterns in natural speech partially predicts auditory qualities like loudness and pitch.

More Related Videos

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
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Behavioral Determination of Stimulus Pair Discrimination of Auditory Acoustic and Electrical Stimuli Using a Classical Conditioning and Heart-rate Approach
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Behavioral Determination of Stimulus Pair Discrimination of Auditory Acoustic and Electrical Stimuli Using a Classical Conditioning and Heart-rate Approach

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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 11, 2026

Assessment of Audio-Tactile Sensory Substitution Training in Participants with Profound Deafness Using the Event-Related Potential Technique
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Assessment of Audio-Tactile Sensory Substitution Training in Participants with Profound Deafness Using the Event-Related Potential Technique

Published on: September 7, 2022

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
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Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

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Behavioral Determination of Stimulus Pair Discrimination of Auditory Acoustic and Electrical Stimuli Using a Classical Conditioning and Heart-rate Approach
10:50

Behavioral Determination of Stimulus Pair Discrimination of Auditory Acoustic and Electrical Stimuli Using a Classical Conditioning and Heart-rate Approach

Published on: June 6, 2012

Area of Science:

  • Auditory Neuroscience
  • Psychoacoustics
  • Sensory Perception

Background:

  • Audition is typically studied via sound physics and auditory system physiology.
  • Recent vision research suggests sensory percepts arise from past experience.
  • This study proposes an experience-based framework for auditory qualities.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if basic auditory qualities (loudness, pitch) are based on the frequency of occurrence of acoustic patterns in natural stimuli.
  • To test an alternative perspective on audition grounded in past experience.

Main Methods:

  • Examined five well-documented psychophysical functions related to hearing.
  • Analyzed a database of natural sound stimuli, specifically speech.
  • Correlated the frequency of acoustic patterns with psychophysical function aspects.

Main Results:

  • The frequency of acoustic patterns in speech partially predicted qualitative aspects of psychophysical functions.
  • Substantial quantitative discrepancies were observed between predictions and actual data.
  • The experience-based model showed limitations in precisely predicting auditory perception.

Conclusions:

  • Past experience, specifically sound pattern frequency, offers a potential explanation for some auditory phenomena.
  • This approach may clarify auditory effects not explained by physical stimulus attributes alone.
  • Further research is needed to refine the quantitative predictions of this experience-based model.