Effect of burst amplitude on the perception of stop consonant place of articulation

We have examined the effects of the relative amplitude of the release burst on perception of the place of articulation of utterance-initial voiceless and voiced stop consonants. The amplitude of the burst, which occurs within the first 10-15 ms following consonant release, was systematically varied in 5-dB steps from -10 to +10 dB relative to a "normal" burst amplitude for two labial-to-alveolar synthetic speech continua--one comprising voiceless stops and the other, voiced stops. The distribution of spectral energy in the bursts for the labial and alveolar stops at the ends of the continuum was consistent with the spectrum shapes observed in natural utterances, and intermediate shapes were used for intermediate stimuli on the continuum. The results of identification tests with these stimuli showed that the relative amplitude of the burst significantly affected the perception of the place of articulation of both voiceless and voiced stops, but the effect was greater for the former than the latter. The results are consistent with a view that two basic properties contribute to the labial-alveolar distinction in English. One of these is determined by the time course of the change in amplitude in the high-frequency range (above 2500 Hz) in the few tens of ms following consonantal release, and the other is determined by the frequencies of spectral peaks associated with the second and third formants in relation to the first formant.     

The effect of broadband noise on the human brainstem auditory evoked response. II. Frequency specificity

A series of experiments evaluated the effects of broadband noise (ipsilateral) on wave V of the brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) elicited by tone bursts or clicks in the presence of high-pass masking noise. Experiment 1 used 1000- and 4000-Hz, 60-dB nHL tone bursts in the presence of broadband noise. With increasing noise level, wave V latency shift was greater for the 1000-Hz tone bursts, while amplitude decrements were similar for both tone-burst frequencies. Experiment 2 varied high-pass masker cutoff frequency and the level of subtotal masking in the presence of 50-dB nHL clicks. The effects of subtotal masking on wave V (increase in latency and decrease in amplitude) increased with increasing derived-band frequency. Experiment 3 covaried high-pass masker cutoff frequency and subtotal masking level for 1000- and 4000-Hz tone-burst stimuli. The effect of subtotal masking on wave V latency was reduced for both tone-burst frequencies when the response-generating region of the cochlear partition was limited by high-pass maskers. The results of these three experiments suggest that most of the wave V latency shift associated with increasing levels of broadband noise is mediated by a place mechanism when the stimulus is a moderate intensity (60 dB nHL), low-frequency (1000 Hz) tone burst. However, the interpretation of the latency shifts produced by broadband noise for 4000-Hz tone-burst stimuli is made more complex by multiple technical factors discussed herein.     

Localization of brief sounds: effects of level and background noise

Listeners show systematic errors in vertical-plane localization of wide-band sounds when tested with brief-duration stimuli at high intensities, but long-duration sounds at any comfortable level do not produce such errors. Improvements in high-level sound localization associated with increased stimulus duration might result from temporal integration or from adaptation that might allow reliable processing of later portions of the stimulus. Free-field localization judgments were obtained for clicks and for 3- and 100-ms noise bursts presented at sensation levels from 30 to 55 dB. For the brief (clicks and 3-ms) stimuli, listeners showed compression of elevation judgments and increased rates and unusual patterns of front/back confusion at sensation levels higher than 40-45 dB. At lower sensation levels, brief sounds were localized accurately. The localization task was repeated using 3-ms noise burst targets in a background of spatially diffuse, wide-band noise intended to pre-adapt the system prior to the target onset. For high-level targets, the addition of background noise afforded mild release from the elevation compression effect. Finally, a train of identical, high-level, 3-ms bursts was found to be localized more accurately than a single burst. These results support the adaptation hypothesis.     

Vibrotactile temporal gap detection as a function of age

The ability of subjects to detect temporal gaps between bursts of sinusoids or bursts of bandlimited noise was measured to evaluate the phenomenon of tactile "sensory persistence" in older persons. Vibratory stimuli were delivered to the right thenar eminence of 27 subjects ranging in age from 8-75 years. The subjects' task was to detect the presence of a silent interval or "gap" between flanking 350-ms vibrotactile stimuli. The gap-detection threshold, expressed as the amplitude of vibration relative to the absolute detection threshold, decreased as the gap duration increased and was higher for gaps in noise than for gaps in sinusoids. The threshold for detecting short gaps increased with age for noise stimuli, but not for sinusoidal stimuli. Furthermore, the gap-detection threshold recovered more rapidly in older subjects for noise stimuli, but less rapidly in older subjects for sinusoidal stimuli. Because of these differences, it appears that the effects of age on gap detection cannot be due to a simple increase in sensory persistence, but may be due to multiple processes.     

Sensitivity to brief changes of interaural time and interaural intensity

The purpose of this study was to measure listeners' abilities to detect brief changes in interaural temporal disparities (ITDs) or interaural intensitive disparities (IIDs) conveyed by bursts of noise (probes) temporally and symmetrically flanked by segments of diotic or uncorrelated noise. Thresholds were measured using a four-interval, two-alternative, forced-choice adaptive task and the total duration of the bursts of noise was either 20, 40, or 100 ms. Probes were temporally centered within each burst and the durations of the probes ranged from 2 to 100 ms, depending upon the duration of the (longer) total burst of noise within which they were embedded. The results indicate that, for a given total duration of noise, there is a rapid decrease in threshold ITD or threshold IID as the duration of the probe is increased so that it occupies a larger portion of the total burst of noise. Mathematical analyses revealed that both threshold ITDs and threshold IIDs could be well accounted for by assuming that the listener processes both types of binaural cues via a single, symmetric, double-exponential temporal window. Interestingly, the shapes of the temporal windows that fit the data obtained from the human listeners resemble the shapes of the temporal windows derived by Wagner [H. Wagner, J. Comp. Physiol. A 169, 281-289 (1991)], who studied the barn owl. The time constants and relative weightings yielded temporal window functions that heavily emphasize information occurring within the very temporal center of the window. This temporal window function was found to be generalizable in the sense that it also accounts for classic data reported by Grantham and Wightman [D.W. Gratham and F.L. Wightman, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 63, 511-523 (1978)] concerning sensitivity to dynamically changing interaural disparities.     

On the role of the amplitude envelope for the perception of [b] and [w]

This study investigated the role of the amplitude envelope in the vicinity of consonantal release in the perception of the stop-glide contrast. Three sets of acoustic [b-w] continua, each in the vowel environments [a] and [i], were synthesized using parameters derived from natural speech. In the first set, amplitude, formant frequency, and duration characteristics were interpolated between exemplar stop and glide endpoints. In the second set, formant frequency and duration characteristics were interpolated, but all stimuli were given a stop amplitude envelope. The third set was like the second, except that all stimuli were given a glide amplitude envelope. Subjects were given both forced-choice and free-identification tasks. The results of the forced-choice task indicated that amplitude cues were able to override transition slope, duration, and formant frequency cues in the perception of the stop-glide contrast. However, results from the free-identification task showed that, although presence of a stop amplitude envelope turned all stimuli otherwise labeled as glides to stops, the presence of a glide amplitude envelope changed stimuli labeled otherwise as stops to fricatives rather than to glides. These results support the view that the amplitude envelope in the vicinity of the consonantal release is a critical acoustic property for the continuant / noncontinuant contrast. The results are discussed in relation to a theory of acoustic invariance.     

Coarticulation in sequences of two nonhomorganic stop consonants: perceptual and acoustic evidence

This study investigated whether any perceptually useful coarticulatory information is carried by the release burst of the first of two successive, nonhomorganic stop consonants. The CV portions of natural VCCV utterances were replaced with matched synthetic stimuli from a continuum spanning the three places of stop articulation. There was a sizable effect of coarticulatory cues in the natural-speech portion on the perception of the second stop consonant. Moreover, when the natural VC portions including the final release burst were presented in isolation, listeners were significantly better than chance at guessing the identity of the following, "missing" syllable-initial stop. The hypothesis that the release burst of a syllable-final stop contains significant coarticulatory information about the place of articulation of a following, nonhomorganic stop was further confirmed in acoustic analyses which revealed significant effects of CV context on the spectral properties of the release bursts. The relationship between acoustic stimulus properties and listeners' perceptual responses was not straightforward, however.     

Propeller tone bursts

Intense high frequency (25–38 kHz) tone bursts have been observed in acoustic tests of a scale model of a general aviation propeller. The amplitude of the tone burst is approximately equal to the amplitude of the propeller noise signature. The conditions necessary for the production of these tone bursts are described. The experiments indicate that the origin of these bursts is a periodic flow oscillation on the suction surface of the propeller blade tips which may be due to the interaction between an oscillating shock wave and a laminar boundary layer.     

Properties of intermediate GRBs subset,according to the GBM,BAT, and BATSE data

The duration of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) is usually characterized by time interval t ₉₀, in which the total number of registered counts grows from 5 to 95%. Classes of short and long GRBs were first detected in analyzing the BATSE experiment data from the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO); burst duration separation point was found to be t _90lim ~2 s. A group of bursts of intermediate duration was first detected in analyzing the data of the same experiment in 1999 in the interval of ~1 to ~40 s with an average event duration of 〈t ₉₀〉 ~ 3.5 s. The results from analyzing the catalog of gamma-ray burst data selected while ground processing BATSE data (i.e., the catalog of nontriggered events) showed that the intensity of intermediate bursts is lower than that of short and long bursts. Preliminary results from investigating the GBM catalog (onboard the Fermi Space Observatory) and the BAT catalog (onboard the Swift satellite) confirm the detection of events with similar properties.     

Similarity, uncertainty, and masking in the identification of nonspeech auditory patterns

This study examined whether increasing the similarity between informational maskers and signals would increase the amount of masking obtained in a nonspeech pattern identification task. The signals were contiguous sequences of pure-tone bursts arranged in six narrow-band spectro-temporal patterns. The informational maskers were sequences of multitone bursts played synchronously with the signal tones. The listener's task was to identify the patterns in a 1-interval 6-alternative forced-choice procedure. Three types of multitone maskers were generated according to different randomization rules. For the least signal-like informational masker, the components in each multitone burst were chosen at random within the frequency range of 200-6500 Hz, excluding a "protected region" around the signal frequencies. For the intermediate masker, the frequency components in the first burst were chosen quasirandomly, but the components in successive bursts were constrained to fall in narrow frequency bands around the frequencies of the components in the initial burst. Within the narrow bands the frequencies were randomized. This masker was considered to be more similar to the signal patterns because it consisted of a set of narrow-band sequences any one of which might be mistaken for a signal pattern. The most signal-like masker was similar to the intermediate masker in that it consisted of a set of synchronously played narrow-band sequences, but the variation in frequency within each sequence was sinusoidal, completing roughly one period in a sequence. This masker consisted of discernible patterns but not patterns that were part of the set of signals. In addition, masking produced by Gaussian noise bursts--thought to produce primarily peripherally based "energetic masking"--was measured and compared to the informational masking results. For the three informational maskers, more masking was produced by the maskers comprised of narrow-band sequences than for the masker in which the frequencies were not constrained to narrow bands. Also, the slopes of the performance-level functions for the three informational maskers were much shallower than for the Gaussian noise masker or for no masker. The findings provided qualified support for the hypothesis that increasing the similarity between signals and maskers, or parts of the maskers, causes greater informational masking. However, it is also possible that the greater masking was a consequence of increasing the number of perceptual "streams" that had to be evaluated by the listener.     

Spectral loudness summation for sequences of short noise bursts

Recent loudness data of single noise bursts indicate that spectral loudness summation depends on signal duration. To gain insight into the mechanisms underlying this duration effect, loudness was measured as a function of signal bandwidth centered around 2 kHz for sequences of 10-ms noise bursts at various repetition rates and, for comparison, for single noise bursts of either 10- or 1000-ms duration. The test-signal bandwidth was varied from 200 to 6400 Hz. For the repeated noise bursts, the reference signal had a bandwidth of 400 Hz. For the single noise bursts, data were obtained for two reference bandwidths: 400 and 3200 Hz. In agreement with previous results, the magnitude of spectral loudness summation was larger for the 10-ms than for the 1000-ms noise bursts. The reference bandwidth had no significant effect on the results for the single noise bursts. Up to repetition rates of 50 Hz, the magnitude of spectral loudness summation for the sequences of noise bursts was the same as for the single short noise burst. The data indicate that the mechanism underlying the duration effect in spectral loudness is considerably faster than the time constant of about 100 ms commonly associated with the temporal integration of loudness.     

Dynamics of double bubbles under the driving of burst ultrasound

This paper investigates the pulsations and translation of bubbles in a double-bubble system driven by burst ultrasound. Results illustrate that for two identical bubbles, decreasing the frequency of burst or increasing its amplitude can enhance the pulsations and improve the translation velocities of bubbles. In a certain scope, large bubble brings about fast translation velocity, but the velocity will fall down for too large bubble, such as the bubble with ambient radius over about its resonance radius. When the ambient radii of two bubbles are different, translation of the large bubble is smaller than that of the small bubble. In addition, the effect of initial distance between bubbles is described as well. If burst serials are used, shortening the time interval between each burst and improving the acoustic amplitude of bursts are beneficial for the translations of bubbles.     

Strain bursts during cyclic deformation and coarse slip

Summary Single crystals of 99·98% copper were cyclically deformed in push-pull at 50 cps by an electrodynamical vibrator designed to make the stress amplitude independent of changes in plastic compliance of the specimen. Over a period ofN cycles (280 < < N < 10⁶) the stress amplitude was increased linearly with time up to 3·2 kp/mm² giving a fatigue life of 10⁶. During this monotonic increase of stress amplitude withN > 5000 the plastic strain amplitude did not rise monotonically but showed about 20 regularly spaced, strong maxima. These slip bursts lasted typically about 50 cycles and originated from slip distributed throughout the specimen. The next burst occurred when the stress amplitude had increased by about 12%. Observations of the influence of the rate of stress amplitude increase, unidirectional prestrain, and orientation are reported. If one stops increasing the stress amplitude between two strain bursts at a stress amplitude of only about 1·5 kp/mm² and then pulls the specimen unidirectionally, a yield point with a lower yield stress is observed just at the stress where the next strain burst would have occurred had the increase of cycling stress been continued. During the subsequent yield elongation in a unidirectional test there form very strong (0·3 m) and widely spaced (5 m) slip lines. This coarse slip cannot be explained in terms of point defect clusters at the very beginning of a fatigue test of a pure metal. All of these observations can, however, be interpreted in terms of the formation and dissociation of dislocation dipoles formed by mutual trapping of dislocations of opposite sign on different slip planes. It seems reasonable that the main part of cyclic hardening is due to this mutual trapping even in tests performed so that no bursts occur. This is in agreement with the ample evidence supplied by electron microscopy that almost nothing but dipoles are observed after cyclic deformation.Published in Z. f. Metallkunde59 (1968), 927.     

Coding of amplitude-modulated signals in the cochlear nucleus of a grass frog

To study the mechanisms that govern the coding of temporal features of complex sound signals, responses of single neurons located in the dorsal nucleus of the medulla oblongata (the cochlear nucleus) of a curarized grass frog (Rana temporaria) to pure tone bursts and amplitude modulated tone bursts with a modulation frequency of 20 Hz and modulation depths of 10 and 80% were recorded. The carrier frequency was equal to the characteristic frequency of a neuron, the average signal level was 20–30 dB above the threshold, and the signal duration was equal to ten full modulation periods. Of the 133 neurons studied, 129 neurons responded to 80% modulated tone bursts by discharges that were phase-locked with the envelope waveform. At this modulation depth, the best phase locking was observed for neurons with the phasic type of response to tone bursts. For tonic neurons with low characteristic frequencies, along with the reproduction of the modulation, phase locking with the carrier frequency of the signal was observed. At 10% amplitude modulation, phasic neurons usually responded to only the onset of a tone burst. Almost all tonic units showed a tendency to reproduce the envelope, although the efficiency of the reproduction was low, and for half of these neurons, it was below the reliability limit. Some neurons exhibited a more efficient reproduction of the weak modulation. For almost half of the neurons, a reliable improvement was observed in the phase locking of the response during the tone burst presentation (from the first to the tenth modulation period). The cooperative histogram of a set of neurons responding to 10% modulated tone bursts within narrow ranges of frequencies and intensities retains the information on the dynamics of the envelope variation. The data are compared with the results obtained from the study of the responses to similar signals in the acoustic midbrain center of the same object and also with the psychophysical effect of a differential sensitivity increase in the process of adaptation.     

The just audible tonality of short exponential and Gaussian pure tone bursts

This paper reports on listening tests performed to investigate the just audible tonality (JAT) of decaying pure tone bursts. Both exponential and Gaussian functions are used to shape the envelopes of the tone bursts and critical band center frequencies between 150 and 7000 Hz are studied. Loudness compensation is implemented to compensate for the reduced loudness of short tone bursts and attack functions are used for minimizing clicks. By using the method of limits, a sequence of tone bursts with increasing decay times and constant frequencies is presented to the listeners at 0.9 s intervals. The first burst in the sequence which is perceived as being tonal is indicated by the listeners. When that happens, the decay times of the tone bursts decrease and the listeners are asked to select the first tone burst with no audible tonality. The listeners are allowed to freely define tonality. No reference is given. For frequencies above 3.4 kHz, the results indicate that tonality is just audible for tone burst lengths of approximately 2.6-3.0 ms. For the lowest stimuli frequencies, the corresponding burst length is approximately 20-23 ms.     

Integration of spectral and temporal cues separated in time and frequency

Subjects discriminated a "standard" pair of tone bursts (T1, T2) from a "comparison" pair (T1 + delta t, T2 + delta f), containing increments in the duration delta t of the first burst and/or the frequency delta f of the second burst. The threshold (d' = 2.0) for delta t was measured as a function of delta f, and the threshold for delta f as a function of delta t. The integration of increments in duration and frequency was studied as a function of the spectral and temporal separation between T1 and T2. A trade-off between the values of delta t and delta f required for d' = 2.0 performance was observed. This integration takes place when delta t, delta f occur simultaneously in the same spectral region, and when they occur separated by up to 120 ms, or by up to a full octave. The efficiency of integration was similar for all conditions of temporal and spectral separation studied, because the discriminability of delta t and of delta f is also nearly uniform across experimental conditions. The results from all experimental conditions are adequately described by a vector summation model derived from TSD. In a subsidiary experiment, subjects categorized pure tones varying in duration and frequency as "high" or "low" in pitch and "long" or "short" in duration. It was found that combined variations in duration and frequency result in essentially independent perceptual processes, although pitch has a small effect upon the perceived duration. It is concluded that spectral-temporal integration is a general ability operating in a variety of stimulus conditions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

First search for gravitational wave bursts with a network of detectors

We report the initial results from a search for bursts of gravitational radiation by a network of five cryogenic resonant detectors during 1997 and 1998. This is the first significant search with more than two detectors observing simultaneously. No gravitational wave burst was detected. The false alarm rate was lower than 1 per 10(4) yr when three or more detectors were operating simultaneously. The typical threshold was H approximately 4x10(-21) Hz-1 on the Fourier component at approximately 10(3) Hz of the gravitational wave strain amplitude. New upper limits for amplitude and rate of gravitational wave bursts have been set.     

Detection and discrimination of simulated motion of auditory targets in the horizontal plane

Three experiments investigated subjects' ability to detect and discriminate the simulated horizontal motion of auditory targets in an anechoic environment. "Moving" stimuli were produced by dynamic application of stereophonic balancing algorithms to a two-loudspeaker system with a 30 degree separation. All stimuli were 500-Hz tones. In experiment 1, subjects had to discriminate a left-to-right moving stimulus from a stationary stimulus pulsed for the same duration (300 or 600 ms). For both durations, minimum audible "movement" angles ("MAMA's") were on the order of 5 degrees for stimuli presented at 0 degrees azimuth (straight ahead), and increased to greater than 30 degrees for stimuli presented at +/- 90 degrees azimuth. Experiment 2 further investigated MAMA's at 0 degrees azimuth, employing two different procedures to track threshold: holding stimulus duration constant (at 100-600 ms) while varying velocity; or holding the velocity constant (at 22 degrees-360 degrees/s) while varying duration. Results from the two procedures agreed with each other and with the MAMA's determined by Perrott and Musicant for actually moving sound sources [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 62, 1463-1466 (1977b)]: As stimulus duration decreased below 100-150 ms, the MAMA's increased sharply from 5 degrees-20 degrees or more, indicating that there is some minimum integration time required for subjects to perform optimally in an auditory spatial resolution task. Experiment 3 determined differential "velocity" thresholds employing simulated reference velocities of 0 degrees-150 degrees/s and stimulus durations of 150-600 ms. As with experiments 1 and 2, the data are more easily summarized by considering angular distance than velocity: For a given "extent of movement" of a reference target, about 4 degrees-10 degrees additional extent is required for threshold discrimination between two "moving" targets, more or less independently of stimulus duration or reference velocity. These data suggest that for the range of simulated velocities employed in these experiments, subjects respond to spatial changes--not velocity per se--when presented with a "motion" detection or discrimination task.     

Dynamics of energetic electrons in a solar flare loop and the flattening of its millimeter-wavelength radio emission spectrum

A comparison of predictions by the dynamical trap- plus- precipitation model of broadband microwave bursts and the empirical data on intensive solar flares at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths is presented. The main finding of the data analysis and model calculations is the spectral flattening throughout the entire burst duration. This effect occurs always in the decay phase of the flux peaks at frequencies well above the spectrum peak frequency and is independent of the burst duration. It was found that in some bursts the flux maxima at the higher frequencies are delayed compared to the maxima at the lower frequencies. These effects can be interpreted as being a consequence of the hardening of the electron energy spectrum in the decay phase of the burst.     

Rise-fall time effects on the brainstem auditory evoked response: mechanisms

Experiments were conducted to assess the contribution of place mechanisms to the effect of rise--fall time on wave V of the human brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER). Noise bursts of 4- and 10-ms duration were presented at various rise-fall times (0, 1, 2, and 5 ms). Subtractive high-pass masking techniques were used to determine the effect of rise time as a function of derived-band frequency. In general, increasing rise time prolonged wave V latency but did not affect amplitude. Rise-time effects did not depend on derived-band frequency and similar effects were seen in the unmasked conditions. In addition, narrowing the derived band did not alter the observed effects on latency and amplitude. Signal envelope showed no effects on traveling wave velocity. These results suggest that place mechanisms contribute little to changes in the BAER associated with rise--fall time.