Question 1

Tone chroma appears to be encoded in the:
A) temporal cortex
B) frontal cortex
C) occipital cortex
D) parietal cortex

Accepted Answer

The answer of Tone chroma appears to be encoded in...

Question 2

Individuals with absolute pitch perception show activation in the frontal cortex when __________________. Individuals with relative pitch perception show activation in the frontal cortex when __________________.
A) a pair of tones is played; a pair of tones is played
B) a pair of tones is played; a single tone is played
C) a single tone is played; a pair of tones is played
D) both A and C

Accepted Answer

Individuals with absolute pitch perception show activation in the frontal cortex when a single tone is played because they can identify or reproduce a given musical note without the need for a reference tone. Individuals with relative pitch perception, on the other hand, typically require a reference tone to identify musical intervals, hence the frontal cortex activation when a pair of tones is played, allowing them to compare the two.

Question 3

Evidence from case studies (such as Ian McDonald) suggests that the right parietal cortex plays a role in:
A) reading sheet music
B) absolute pitch perception
C) relative pitch perception
D) perceiving a sound's timbre

Accepted Answer

The right parietal cortex is involved in processing spatial information and has been implicated in tasks that require spatial manipulation, such as reading sheet music. This is because reading sheet music involves understanding and interpreting the spatial arrangement of notes on the staff, which is a skill that relies on spatial processing abilities associated with the right parietal cortex.

Question 4

The Gestalt principle of the law of proximity applies to music perception in that:
A) listeners tend to group a tone with immediately preceding or following tones
B) listeners tend to group a tone with tones from similar pitch ranges
C) listeners tend to group a tone with tones of similar loudness
D) listeners tend to group a tone with tones of similar timbre

Accepted Answer

The law of proximity states that objects that are close to each other are perceived as a group. In music perception, this means that listeners tend to group a tone with immediately preceding or following tones, as they are close in time and perceived as a single entity. This principle is particularly important in melodic perception, where listeners group notes into phrases based on their proximity in time.

Question 5

Studies investigating the perception of figure-ground relationships in music perception indicate:
A) only one melodic line can be heard as a "figure" at any given time
B) only one melodic line can be heard as the "ground" at any given time
C) even non-musicians are able to perceive multiple "figures" at any given time
D) both A and B

Accepted Answer

The answer of Studies investigating the perception of figure-ground relationships...

Question 6

Which of the following statements about musicians and non-musicians is TRUE?
A) Non-musicians and musicians can recognize when a familiar song is misplayed.
B) Non-musicians can recognize when an unfamiliar song has a discordant note.
C) Musicians can recognize when an unfamiliar song has a discordant note.
D) both B and C
E) A, B, and C

Accepted Answer

Musicians and non-musicians can recognize when a familiar song is played incorrectly due to their memory of the song. Non-musicians might struggle with identifying discordant notes in unfamiliar songs due to a lack of trained musical ear, but they can still sometimes notice obvious mistakes. Musicians, with their trained ears, are more adept at recognizing discordant notes in unfamiliar songs, as their training allows them to detect subtle discrepancies in pitch and harmony.

Question 7

Which of the following statements about infants' music perception is TRUE?
A) The auditory areas of infants' brains are remarkably similar to those of adult musicians.
B) Infants are born with a preference for certain rhythms.
C) Transposing the key of a song hinders an infant's ability to recognize it.
D) Infants are sensitive to the melodic contour of a song.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which of the following statements about infants'...

Question 8

Two tones are presented simultaneously to a listener. Specifically, C4 is presented to the left ear while C5 is presented to the right ear). Then, the two tones are again presented simultaneously to the listener, but this time the tones are switched so that C5 is presented to the left ear while C4 is presented to the right ear.
 i. After repeating this auditory pattern for a few trials, listeners report
 hearing:
A) C4 in the left ear and then C4 in the right ear (with this pattern repeating)
B) C5 in the left ear and then C5 in the right ear (with this pattern repeating)
C) C4 in the left ear and then C5 in the right ear (with this pattern repeating)
D) C5 in the left ear and then C4 in the right ear (with this pattern repeating)

Accepted Answer

The answer of Two tones are presented simultaneously to a...

Question 9

In the octave illusion, the left ear typically hears low-frequency tones while the right ear typically hears high-frequency tones. This is because:
A) the low-frequency stimuli are only presented to the left ear and the high-frequency stimuli are only presented to the right ear
B) the high-frequency stimuli are only presented to the left ear and the low-frequency stimuli are only presented to the right ear
C) there is an asymmetry between brain hemispheres in processing frequency information
D) the low-frequency stimuli are presented louder than the high-frequency stimuli

Accepted Answer

The octave illusion occurs due to the way our brain processes sounds, with an asymmetry in how different hemispheres handle frequency information, leading to the perception of different tones in each ear.

Question 10

Work by Deutsch on the tritone paradox suggests that a person's tendency to hear the tones as going up or going down is due to:
A) the timbre of the two tones presented
B) the musical background of the listener
C) the rate at which the two tones are presented
D) the pitch range typically heard in spoken language

Accepted Answer

Deutsch's work on the tritone paradox indicates that the way individuals perceive the direction of the tritone pairs (whether ascending or descending) is influenced by the pitch range of their spoken language, suggesting a link between speech patterns and musical perception.

Question 11

Which of the following is a phoneme?
A) the sound of a piano playing middle C
B) the word "candle"
C) the "re" in "rewind"
D) the "b" sound in "ball"

Accepted Answer

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another. The "b" sound in "ball" is a phoneme because changing it can change the meaning of the word (e.g., ball to mall).

Question 12

The consonant sounds /p/ and /b/ differ in their:
A) place of articulation
B) manner of articulation
C) voicing
D) prosody

Accepted Answer

/p/ and /b/ are both bilabial sounds, meaning they are produced with both lips, but they differ in voicing. /p/ is voiceless, while /b/ is voiced.

Question 13

Which of the following is NOT a way in which consonants are discriminated?
A) whether they are voiced or unvoiced
B) the location of constriction in the vocal tract
C) the manner of articulation
D) the position and height of the tongue

Accepted Answer

The position and height of the tongue primarily differentiate vowels, not consonants. Consonants are primarily differentiated by whether they are voiced or unvoiced, the location of constriction in the vocal tract, and the manner of articulation.

Question 14

When producing a voiceless consonant:
A) the vocal cords do not vibrate
B) the vocal cords vibrate
C) the air is completely blocked
D) the tongue is raised high in the mouth

Accepted Answer

When producing a voiceless consonant, the vocal cords do not vibrate. Instead, the sound is created by the airflow through the unobstructed vocal tract.

Question 15

Stress, rate, and intonation all contribute to the rhythm of speech. Therefore, these aspects make up the __________________ of speech.
A) voicing
B) prosody
C) phonemes
D) formants

Accepted Answer

Prosody refers to the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech, which are all influenced by factors such as punctuation, emotion, and emphasis. Voicing refers to the sound produced by the vocal cords during speech, phonemes are the smallest units of sound that distinguish one word from another, and formants refer to the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract that contribute to vowel sounds. Therefore, the best choice is B.

Question 16

A __________________ is used to visually describe the acoustic signal of speech by plotting frequency as a function of time.
A) speech spectrogram
B) voice onset graph
C) formant grid
D) sound map

Accepted Answer

A speech spectrogram is the best choice as it is a visual representation of the frequency components of speech over time. A voice onset graph is a tool used to analyze the timing and coordination of vocal fold vibration during speech production. A formant grid is also a visual representation of speech sounds, but it is used to display the formant frequencies of vowel sounds in relation to each other. A sound map is not related to the analysis of speech signals.

Question 17

In looking at the speech signal on a speech spectrogram:
A) word boundaries are easy to identify.
B) phoneme boundaries are easy to identify.
C) a given phoneme may have different pronunciations.
D) both A and B

Accepted Answer

A given phoneme may have different pronunciations due to factors like coarticulation and speaker variation, which is reflected in the spectrogram. Word and phoneme boundaries are often not easily identifiable because of the continuous and overlapping nature of speech sounds.

Question 18

Coarticulation is used to describe the fact that:
A) phonemes tend to overlap with one another in the speech stream
B) a single phoneme does not have a single, constant pronunciation
C) our vocal system is capable of producing both consonants and vowels
D) consonant sounds can either be voiced or voiceless

Accepted Answer

Coarticulation refers to the fact that phonemes in speech overlap with each other, meaning that the articulation of one sound can be influenced by the articulation of the sounds that come before and after it. For example, in the word "cat", the articulation of the /t/ sound is influenced by the preceding /æ/ sound, resulting in a slight burst of air (aspiration) when pronouncing the /t/ sound. This is because the back of the tongue anticipates the closure of the lips during the /æ/ sound, and so begins to position itself for the /t/ sound before the lips have fully opened.

Question 19

Misperceiving the jingle "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee" as "Nobody does it like Sara Lee" is an example of:
A) coarticulation
B) a mondegreen
C) phonemic restoration
D) the McGurk effect

Accepted Answer

The misperception of "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee" as "Nobody does it like Sara Lee" is an example of a mondegreen, which is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase or song lyric.

Question 20

The findings of Pollack and Pickett indicate that:
A) listeners rarely misperceive words presented in isolation
B) emotions affect a number of different aspects of prosody
C) speakers are quite precise in their pronunciation of words in conversation
D) context aids in the identification of spoken words

Accepted Answer

Pollack and Pickett's findings suggest that context aids in the identification of spoken words, as listeners are able to fill in missing information based on the surrounding words and their knowledge of typical word patterns.

Quiz 11: Auditory Pattern Perception

Tone chroma appears to be encoded in the:

Individuals with absolute pitch perception show activation in the frontal cortex when . Individuals with relative pitch perception show activation in the frontal cortex when .

Evidence from case studies (such as Ian McDonald) suggests that the right parietal cortex plays a role in:

The Gestalt principle of the law of proximity applies to music perception in that:

Studies investigating the perception of figure-ground relationships in music perception indicate:

Which of the following statements about musicians and non-musicians is TRUE?

Which of the following statements about infants' music perception is TRUE?

In the octave illusion, the left ear typically hears low-frequency tones while the right ear typically hears high-frequency tones. This is because:

Work by Deutsch on the tritone paradox suggests that a person's tendency to hear the tones as going up or going down is due to:

Which of the following is a phoneme?

The consonant sounds /p/ and /b/ differ in their:

Which of the following is NOT a way in which consonants are discriminated?

When producing a voiceless consonant:

Stress, rate, and intonation all contribute to the rhythm of speech. Therefore, these aspects make up the __________________ of speech.

A __________________ is used to visually describe the acoustic signal of speech by plotting frequency as a function of time.

In looking at the speech signal on a speech spectrogram:

Coarticulation is used to describe the fact that:

Misperceiving the jingle "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee" as "Nobody does it like Sara Lee" is an example of:

The findings of Pollack and Pickett indicate that: