<p><i>"...an excellent example of how one can present comprehensive accounts of intertwined psychological, physiological, and physical aspects of perceptual phenomena on a nontechnical level but without compromising the essence of their serious scientific analysis....highly suitable for teaching elements of psychophysics and neurophysiology to physics undergraduates..."</i><br />—<b><i>Contemporary Psychology</i></b></p><p><i>"...represents an excellent introduction to the basic concepts of hearing."</i><br />—<b><i>American Scientist</i></b></p><p><i>"Luce has crafted an impressive book....Intended for undergraduates (bright ones), it contains the best introduction to acoustics to appear in quite some time."</i><br />—<b><i>Annual Reviews of Psychology</i></b></p>
Contents: Part I: Transmission, Transduction, and Black Boxes. Signal Transmission. Signal Reception. Transducers. Black and Not-So-Black Boxes. Reductionism in Science. Part II: Descriptive Physics of Pure Tones. Propagation of Pulses. Generation of Waves. Wave Propagation in Time and Space. The Doppler Effect. Reflection and Refraction of Waves. Some Formal Material That Is Useful in Audition. Dimensions of Physical Quantities. Measuring Sound Intensity. Sound Attenuation Through a Change of Medium. Localizing a Sound Source. Resonance and Filters. Summary of the Main Concepts About Simple Waves. Further Reading. Part III: Properties of the Ear. The Outer and Middle Ears. The Inner Ear. Hair Cells and the Auditory Nerve. Neural Coding of Auditory Information. Interplay of Behavior and Physiology. Further Reading. Part IV: Psychophysics of Pure Tones. The Issues of Psychophysics. Local Psychophysics. Global Psychophysics. Bridging Local and Global Psychophysics. Summary. Further Reading. Part V: Descriptive Physics of Complex Sounds. Superposition. Standing Waves. Synthesis of a Complex Wave in Terms of Harmonics. NonLinear Distortion. Noise. Summary. Further Reading. Part VI: Psychophysics of Complex Sounds. Examples Where the Phenomenon Is Physical. Pure Tone Masking and Facilitation. Noise Masking and Facilitation. Illusory Pitch (or the Missing Fundamental). Echoes and Reverberation. Perceptual Structuring of Sounds. Speech: A Special Perceptual Ability. Some Relations of Hearing to the Other Senses, Especially Vision. Further Reading. Part VII: Exercises. Review Questions Covering the Entire Text. Part VIII: References.Appendix: The Demonstration Disk.