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Interference: Path Lengths

Interference: Path Lengths

Consider two sources of sound, that may or may not be in phase, emitting waves at a single frequency, and consider the frequencies to be the same.
Two special sources may be considered when they are in phase. This can be easily achieved by feeding the two sources from the same source. An example would be synchronizing the two speakers by feeding them with the same source, such as the sound waves produced by a tuning fork. This setup ensures that the two sources have the same frequency and are...

Auditory Perception

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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...

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Sound waves can be modeled either as longitudinal waves, wherein the molecules of the medium oscillate around an equilibrium position, or as pressure waves. When two identical waves from the same source superimpose on each other, the combination of two crests or two troughs results in amplitude reinforcement known as constructive interference. If two identical waves, that are initially in phase, become out of phase because of different path lengths, the combination of crests with troughs...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 7, 2026

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

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

Published on: September 7, 2022

"Change deafness" arising from inter-feature masking within a single auditory object.

Nicolas Barascud¹, Timothy D Griffiths, David McAlpine

¹University College London.

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

|September 20, 2013

Summary

Listeners often miss auditory frequency changes when a duration change closely follows, suggesting competing perceptual resources. This "change deafness" impacts detecting changes in complex sound environments.

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Area of Science:

Auditory Perception
Neuroscience
Psychoacoustics

Background:

Detecting changes in complex acoustic scenes relies on auditory sensitivity and brain processing capacity.
Listeners must process competing auditory information, especially when multiple features change rapidly.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate listener sensitivity to successive changes in auditory object features.
To explore the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of rapid, successive auditory feature changes using magnetoencephalography (MEG).

Main Methods:

Combined psychophysics and magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure behavioral and neural responses.
Presented auditory stimuli with regularly repeating frequency patterns followed by a long tone, varying in expectedness and duration.
Systematically manipulated the timing and nature of feature changes (frequency and duration) within auditory objects.

Main Results:

Cortical signatures for both frequency pattern and duration changes were evident in MEG data.
Listeners frequently failed to detect frequency pattern changes when a duration change closely followed.
Demonstrated a phenomenon of "change deafness" for successive feature changes within the same auditory object.

Conclusions:

Successive feature changes within the same auditory object, occurring close in time, compete for perceptual resources.
This competition can lead to a failure in detecting one of the changes, impacting overall auditory scene analysis.
The findings highlight limitations in auditory processing when faced with rapid, complex auditory events.