From acoustics to perception: How to listen to meaningful sounds in a meaningful way
Brian Gygi · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2003
Making sense of the sounds we encounter everyday requires a coupling between what we sense (acoustics) and what we ‘‘hear’’ (perception). Data will be presented suggesting that the psychological organization of familiar nonspeech, nonmusical sounds (‘‘environmental sounds’’) is closely aligned to the acoustic similarity of these sounds, as well as to the physical events that produced the sounds. Results of identification studies indicate that the particular acoustic features listened for include pitch salience, rhythmicity, and amplitude modulation. Far from being impoverished, the acoustic information available in the world is sufficient to quickly and reliably determine the source of a sound and allow for appropriate responses.