SPPA 206: The Auditory System

Study Guide for Exam 3

Hearing Disorders and Auditory Perception

Notes: As always, this study guide is intended to give you a general idea of some of the kinds of questions that might appear on the exam, and to help you organize your studying. It is not intended to cover all of the topics that might be appear on the exam. However, some of the exam questions may be taken almost verbatim from the study guide. In addition to the kinds of questions that are shown below, there may also be multiple choice questions, matching items, and diagrams that you would be asked to label. This study guide will cover only the new material since exam 2. The final exam will be comprehensive, with more emphasis on the new material. Be sure to look over your study guides from the first two exams. Two Final Notes: (1) This study guide is based on a pretty optimistic guess about how much material we’ll get through. There may be topics covered here, especially related to hearing disorders, that we will not get to in class and which will therefore not be covered on the exam. (2) The vestibular system and the central auditory system are not covered on this study guide. See study guide number 2.

  1. List and briefly describe two disorders of the external ear.
  1. What is a cholesteatoma?
  1. What is otosclerosis? What is a common treatment for this disease?
  1. What frequencies are most affected by noise-induced hearing loss? How does the audiometric configuration for noise-induced hearing loss change as the disorder progresses?
  1. List and briefly describe three causes of conductive hearing loss.
  1. List and briefly describe three causes of sensorineural hearing loss.
  1. Certain drugs are known to be ototoxic. Why would these drugs ever be administered?
  1. Give a detailed, step-by-step description of the disease process that is involved in serous otitis media?
  1. What is the difference between suppurative (purulent) and non-suppurative otitis media? What is the difference between serous and mucoid otitis media?
  1. How are acute, chronic, and recurrent otitis media different?
  1. What is the most common treatment for otitis media? Name at least one alternative to this treatment. Under what conditions would this alternative treatment be used?
  1. Why is it so important that otitis media be treated, especially in children?
  1. What kinds of phenomena are studied in psychophysics?
  1. What is the distinction between physical and psychological dimensions? Give an example of a perceptual dimension and a physical parameter that controls that dimension.
  1. Describe two rules that control the relationship between frequency and pitch?
  1. Describe three rules that control the relationship between intensity and loudness?
  1. What is timbre? What acoustic parameter(s) control timbre? Draw the spectra of two sounds that would have the same pitch but different timbres.
  1. Draw time-domain representations of two sounds that would have the same fundamental frequency but different amplitude envelopes.
  1. List and briefly explain two cues that are used by the auditory system to localize sound. What does it mean to say that these cues are "integrated" by the auditory system?
  1. What is the "head shadow" effect, and what does this have to do with localization?
  1. What is the distinction between bone conduction and air conduction? How can bone conduction thresholds be used to diagnose hearing disorders?
  1. What kind of listening experiment was used to produce: (a) the mel scale, (b) the sone scale, (c) the phon scale?
  1. A click is presented over earphones to the right ear slightly earlier than the left ear. Where will the sound appear to be coming from? What two changes could the experimenter make in order to "move" the sound back to midline?

Terms for Exam 3

Note: Items that are separated by slashes are alternate names for the same structure.

atresia

external otitis

cholesteatoma/keratoma

otosclerosis

otitis media

suppurative

purulent

non-suppurative

serous

secretory

mucous (mucoid) otitis media ("glue ear")

acute

chronic

recurrent

ossicular chain disarticulation

ototoxic

Meniere's disease (endolymphatic hydrops)

presbycusis

acoustic trauma

long-term noise exposure

labyrinthitis

congenital

adventitious

anoxia/asphyxia

Waardenburg Syndrome

Treacher-Collins Syndrome

Klippel-Feil Syndrome

maternal rubella

vertigo

neuroma

central auditory processing disorders

dysacusia

retrocochlear

psychophysics

psychoacoustics

pitch

timber

loudness

spectrum envelope

amplitude envelope

localization

interaural intensity difference

head shadow

interaural time difference

mel scale

sone scale

phon scale

bone conduction