SHS 311 Exam Questions and Answers With Verified Solutions 2025
What is the task of an objective psychophysics? - ✔✔Detection, discrimination & recognition
What is the goal of an objective psychophysics? - ✔✔Measures what a listener can hear
What does the objective psychophysics require? - ✔✔A listener to make a decision as to whether or not
a stimulus is physically changed
- If the change is from NO stimulus to the presence of a stimulus, the task is a detection task (nothing vs
10dB)
- If the stimulus is always present and a physical parameter of the stimulus is changed, the task is a
discrimination task (10 dB vs 20 dB)
What does psychophysics measures? (2) - ✔✔1. Absolute threshold
2. Difference threshold
What is the subjective psychophysics task? - ✔✔Sensory, scaling, matching
What is the goal of subjective psychophysics? - ✔✔Measures what a listener does hear
What is absolute threshold? - ✔✔The stimulus parameter value that an observer can barely detect
What is difference threshold? - ✔✔the smallest amount by which two sensory stimuli can differ in order
for an individual to perceive them as different.
What is a psychometric function? - ✔✔Relate a measure of listeners performance (percent of time that
a stimulus is detected) to measure of the stimulus (stimulus intensity level)
What does the Psychometric Function Graph show? - ✔✔Shows % of detections at each stimulus
intensity level
, How is threshold computed on a psychometric function? - ✔✔- Threshold is derived from psychometric
functions as indicated above (the level at which the stimulus is detected 50% of the time)
What is the limitation of classical objective psychophysical tasks? - ✔✔- Prone to possible confounding
effects like expectations, experiences, instructions. and other situations that are not associated with
sensitivity can affect the listeners tendency to choose one response or the other = response bias
What do you use to overcome the limitation of classical objective psychophysical tasks? - ✔✔Theory of
signal detection
What is "Hit" "Miss" "False alarm" & "Correct rejection" - ✔✔- Hit = "Yes" when signal is present
- Miss = "No" when signal is present
- False alarm = "Yes" when signal is not present
- Correct rejection = "No" when signal is not present
What are the upper and lower limits of the dynamic range of hearing? - ✔✔- Upper limit: pain &
discomfort
- Lower limit: is the detection of threshold (0-140 dB)
What is Weber's fraction? - ✔✔- (Delta)S/S = K
What is the Just Noticeable difference (JND)? - ✔✔The smallest difference in a physical property of
stimuli that subjects can discriminate (is often a fixed ratio of the base value of the physical property)
Does the measure of temporal (duration) discrimination follow Weber's Law? - ✔✔It does not follow
Weber's law, yes for some parameter range they follow it but not for all
What is masking? - ✔✔The increase in the detection threshold of one sound (signal) due to the presence
of another to other sounds (maskers)
What is the task of an objective psychophysics? - ✔✔Detection, discrimination & recognition
What is the goal of an objective psychophysics? - ✔✔Measures what a listener can hear
What does the objective psychophysics require? - ✔✔A listener to make a decision as to whether or not
a stimulus is physically changed
- If the change is from NO stimulus to the presence of a stimulus, the task is a detection task (nothing vs
10dB)
- If the stimulus is always present and a physical parameter of the stimulus is changed, the task is a
discrimination task (10 dB vs 20 dB)
What does psychophysics measures? (2) - ✔✔1. Absolute threshold
2. Difference threshold
What is the subjective psychophysics task? - ✔✔Sensory, scaling, matching
What is the goal of subjective psychophysics? - ✔✔Measures what a listener does hear
What is absolute threshold? - ✔✔The stimulus parameter value that an observer can barely detect
What is difference threshold? - ✔✔the smallest amount by which two sensory stimuli can differ in order
for an individual to perceive them as different.
What is a psychometric function? - ✔✔Relate a measure of listeners performance (percent of time that
a stimulus is detected) to measure of the stimulus (stimulus intensity level)
What does the Psychometric Function Graph show? - ✔✔Shows % of detections at each stimulus
intensity level
, How is threshold computed on a psychometric function? - ✔✔- Threshold is derived from psychometric
functions as indicated above (the level at which the stimulus is detected 50% of the time)
What is the limitation of classical objective psychophysical tasks? - ✔✔- Prone to possible confounding
effects like expectations, experiences, instructions. and other situations that are not associated with
sensitivity can affect the listeners tendency to choose one response or the other = response bias
What do you use to overcome the limitation of classical objective psychophysical tasks? - ✔✔Theory of
signal detection
What is "Hit" "Miss" "False alarm" & "Correct rejection" - ✔✔- Hit = "Yes" when signal is present
- Miss = "No" when signal is present
- False alarm = "Yes" when signal is not present
- Correct rejection = "No" when signal is not present
What are the upper and lower limits of the dynamic range of hearing? - ✔✔- Upper limit: pain &
discomfort
- Lower limit: is the detection of threshold (0-140 dB)
What is Weber's fraction? - ✔✔- (Delta)S/S = K
What is the Just Noticeable difference (JND)? - ✔✔The smallest difference in a physical property of
stimuli that subjects can discriminate (is often a fixed ratio of the base value of the physical property)
Does the measure of temporal (duration) discrimination follow Weber's Law? - ✔✔It does not follow
Weber's law, yes for some parameter range they follow it but not for all
What is masking? - ✔✔The increase in the detection threshold of one sound (signal) due to the presence
of another to other sounds (maskers)
