PSYC 1200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Tuning Fork, Middle Ear, Stirrup

• School: University of Manitoba
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1200
• Professor: Dawson Clary

Document Summary

Purity (timbre) purest sounds have single frequency of vibration (tuning fork), most sounds are complex mixtures of many frequencies, purity of sound influences how timbre is perceived. Ear channels energy to nervous tissue, sound conducted differently in each of the 3 sections of ear: External depends on vibrations of air molecules. Middle depends on vibration of moveable bones. Inner depends on waves in a fluid, converted into stream of neural signals sent to brain. Pinna (sound collecting cone) cup hand behind ear to hear better (augmenting the cone) Sound waves collected by pinna are funneled along auditory canal towards eardrum (taught membrane that vibrates in response to sound waves) middle ear. Eardrum vibrations transmitted inwards by mechanical chain (3 tiniest bones) Form 3 stage level system, converts large movements with litter force into smaller motion with great force. Serve to amplify tiny changes in air pressure. Consists largely of cochlea (fluid-filled, coiled tunnel that contains receptors for hearing)