Impulse sound events are characterised by ultra high pressures and low frequencies. Lower frequency sounds are generally less attenuated over a given distance in the atmosphere than higher frequencies. Thus, impulse sounds can be heard over greater distances and will be more affected by the environment. To calculate a long-term average immission level it is necessary to apply weighting factors ...

In an earlier study, we found that human voices evoked a positive event-related potential (ERP) peaking at approximately 320 ms after stimulus onset, distinctive from those elicited by instrumental tones. Here we show that though similar in latency to the Novelty P3, this Voice-Sensitive Response (VSR) differs in antecedent conditions and scalp distribution. Furthermore, when participants were ...

This six-year project started with the idea of applying sound recognition and separation techniques that had originated in speech recognition to a broader domain of environmental sound mixtures. As it proceeded, the work diversified into several distinct areas, reflecting the different directions of the graduate students primarily supported by the project: Manuel Reyes and Keansub Lee worked on...

An approach is proposed to shed light on the mechanisms underlying human perception of environmental sound that intrudes in everyday living. Most research on exposure-effect relationships aims at relating overall effects to overall exposure indicators in an epidemiological fashion, without including available knowledge on the possible underlying mechanisms. Here, it is proposed to start from av...

Cochlear implants (CIs) are prosthetic devices developed for listeners with profound bilateral hearing loss. Despite considerable advances in CI hearing technology allowing for improved speech and language recognition, several studies have reported that the identification of common environmental sounds—even years after implantation plus high speech perception scores—prove difficult for most lis...

OBJECTIVE Accessibility of audiometry is hindered by the cost of sound booths and shortage of hearing health personnel. This study investigated the validity of an automated mobile diagnostic audiometer with increased attenuation and real-time noise monitoring for clinical testing outside a sound booth. DESIGN Attenuation characteristics and reference ambient noise levels for the computer-base...

The present study investigated children’s abilities as earwitnesses, and examined the influence of age, individual differences, and the emotionality of the auditive stimuli on memory for environmental sound events. Sixty children participated in the study. Twenty-five children aged 7-8 years and 35 children aged 9-11 years were presented two environmental sound events: a car crashing and someon...