THE INTELLIGENT EAR, On the Nature of Sound Perception.pdf

THE INTELLIGENT EAR
On the Nature of Sound Perception
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THE INTELLIGENT EAR
On the Nature of Sound Perception
Reinier Plomp
Professor Emeritus
Free University Amsterdam
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
2002 Mahwah, New Jersey London
Copyright © 2002 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other
means, without prior written permission of the publisher.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, NJ 07430
Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Plomp, Reinier.
The intelligent ear : on the nature of sound perception
Reinier Plomp.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-3867-8 (alk. paper)
1. Auditory perception. I. Title.
QP465 .P564 2001
’5—dc21 2001023646
CIP
Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on
acid-free paper,and their bindings are chosen for strength and du-
rability.
Printed in the United States of America
**********
Contents
Preface ix
1. Introduction 1
The Dominance of Sinusoidal Tones 2
The Predilection for a “Microscopic” Approach 3
The Preference for the Psychophysical Aspects
of Perception 6
Abstractions from “Dirty” Everyday Conditions 7
Discussion 9
Conclusions 11
2. The Perception of Single Sounds 12
The Ear as a Frequency Analyzer 13
Timbre as the Characteristic Quality of Tones 19
The Search for Pitch 25
The Stability of Loudness 29
Discussion 30
Conclusions 33
3. The Perception of Multiple Sounds 34
The Continuity Effect 35
Segregation of a Sequence of Sounds Into Two 40
Sound Streams
Restoration of Speech Segments Replaced by Noise 46
v
vi CONTENTS
Perceiving Temporal Order 48
The Seemingly Odd Phenomenon odulation
Masking Release 51
The Benefit of Lis