Evaluative Conditioning: The Psychology Of Sound

The snail like shape of the cochlear effectively boosts the strength of the vibrations caused by sound, especially for low pitches. When sound waves hit the ear drum, tiny bones in the ear transmit the vibrations to the fluid of the cochlea, where they travel along a tube that winds into a spiral. The tube’s properties gradually change along its length, so the waves grow and then die away, much as an ocean wave travelling towards the shore gets taller and narrower before breaking at the beach.

These parts make up the sound waves and they travel through a medium which is the material that a wave energy travels through. On page 10 in Activity 2 we had to fill out the table on how to make a louder sound and we learned that to have a louder sound the compressions have to be larger and to increase the frequency the compressions also had to be larger. When we did the activity with the slinkies this was the case because when we had more compressions the sound was louder and the frequency increased. In Activity 1 on page 4 we learned that sound intensity is how much sound energy passes through a certain area in a certain amount of time as it spreads out from the source. Decibels are a unit of measure that indicates the relative intensity of a sound. In Activity 1 on page 5 when we were looking at the table it showed us that as the sound intensity increases the decibel increases because the decibel measured how intense the sound was. According to the chart on page 4 the decibels at a quiet library is 40 dB and the relative intensity is 1000, however if the noise source is some explosions then the decibels is 160 and the relative intensity is

- forms when a sound wave reflects off a hard surface and rebounds back to its original source, essentially becoming the reflection of a sound wave.

Sound waves are nothing more than an energy transfer through a medium be it through a liquid, solid, or a gas. Sound pressure or intensity is measured on logarithmic scale in decibels dB which increases on an order of magnitude. For instance a quiet conversation would be around 30 dB and whereas the human pain threshold would be just over 100 dB. While the pitch or frequency of the sound is measured in hertz or Hz, the higher the hertz the higher the pitch of the sound and vice versa (Hildebrand, 2004).

Music and the sounds that surround us have a way of affecting us before we even enter this world. David Burrows, a music teacher at New York University explains this concept by saying “An unborn child may startle in the womb at the sound of a door slamming shut. The rich, warm cacophony of the womb has been recorded: the mother’s heartbeat and breathing are among the earliest indicators babies have the existence of a world beyond their own skin.” (Storr). This is something a person never outgrows. Whether we intend on it happening or not, the sounds by which we are surrounded affect our mental patterns. Nevertheless, music has the ability to help us heal emotionally and combat our current mental state.

They can “be described using the properties of wave speed, intensity and loudness, and frequency and pitch” (Giancoli, 2006). The speed of sound varies in both different mediums and at different temperatures. Sound intensity “is the rate at which the sound wave’s energy flows through a given area” (Giancoli, 2006). It is dependent upon the amplitude of the wave and the distance from the sound source (Giancoli, 2006). It is also related to loudness. Loudness “is the physical response to the intensity and is subjective depending on the person listening to the sound’ (Giancoli, 2006). Frequency of sound depends on “how fast the source of the sound is vibrating” in which case the “frequency of the sound produced depends on the length of the tubing” of a musical instrument (Giancoli, 2006). In these cases, “longer tubes tend to produce lower frequency sounds” (Giancoli, 2006). “Pitch is the frequency of the sound as perceived by the listener” (Giancoli, 2006).

Sound consists of oscillating waves of compression and decompression of a transmitting medium i.e. air or water, traveling at a fixed velocity (Støylen, 2015). The frequency of sound waves refers to the number oscillations per second, with one cycle per second is considered a unit of 1 hertz (Henderson, 2014). Sound waves oscillating above 20,000 Hz are categorised as ultrasound waves. As sound waves are a transverse wave forms this means the only variant is its frequency and wavelength despite the location in the spectrum. The wavelength is defined as the distance travelled by sound in one cycle, or the distance between two identical points in the wave cycle i.e. the distance from each oscillation (Cura Rodríguez, Seguí and Nicolau, 2012). In regards to wave forms the wavelength shows very little significance as it is inversely proportional to frequency.

As the combination of different sounds travel through out ears, we tend to connect music with certain emotions or memories. For example, to feel that adrenaline rush we select a more upbeat tone in music. If you want a relaxed mood, you listen to something nice and calm with a relaxing melody. According to an article by Mental Health Center, students at Penn State did a study on music and emotions; they showed that people’s emotions have a more positive attitude after they listened to music. Music has a great

Music has an emotional/feeling understanding and a scientific understanding and most people don’t know that music chemically does something to your brain when you listen to it. There are lots of emotions that are felt when we listen to music but there are two that are specifically used for explaining some of the science. Perceived Emotions are when you have the ability to recognize the emotion of a song whether it’s sad, happy, powerful, ect. Felt emotions are when you are

The loudness of a sound is created by the amplitude of a wave. The larger the amplitude of a wave, the louder the sound, and the smaller the amplitude of a wave, the softer the sound. This basically means that the larger the wave the louder the sound and the smaller the wave the quieter the sound. This is often seen when a person records sounds on a computer as taller lines representing louder sounds, shorter lines representing softer sounds and horizontal lines representing no sound at all.

Going to a movie, there will always be music in it. In the scary parts, the music is dark and threatening. For happy and joyful moments the music is light and blissful. It controls the way the audience feels. As an experiment, turn off the sound as you watch television. It changes the way you feel about the entertainment you watch. Music can lift low spirits, help people feel happy again. With depression, there are scientists who say that certain music helps the mood lighten. In the car, driving down the road to any destination there is a radio going on during the ride. It always puts people in a better mood; singing along with the lyrics has an energetic buzz about it. Listening to music can give you a way to feel throughout the day. With the way life is, stressful, then there is a way to release it as

The impact of music on positive psychology and emotion is a well known fact. Music has an extraordinary ability to change people’s emotions. In humans, music has the ability to invoke emotions of sadness, happiness and even fear (Goycoolea, Levy & Ramirez, 2013). The ability of music to alter human mood makes it one of the greatest subjects of positive psychology. Seligman (2011) argued that even though a lot of effort has been spent on psychotherapy and pharmacology, such interventions are not

What is a sound wave? A sound wave is produced by a mechanical vibration, such as a tuning fork. The vibrating object causes the surrounding medium, such as air, to vibrate as well.The wave travels through the medium to a detector, like your ear, and it is heard.As with any type of wave, a sound wave is also described by it's wavelength, amplitude, period, and frequency.

In passage one , author Jennifer James explains how music and objects around you can change you mood, for example perhaps you are at a concert and the singer is providing optimistic music listening to the music will soon make you and the people around you optimistic or if the singer is providing sad or angry music then you will be able you relate with that emotion and will feel angry or sad.

How can different types of music affect people’s emotions? Music has many different ways to affect people. In some ways, it is good for the body both physically and mentally. In other ways, people think it is nice to listen to. More detailed, music has personalities, which can express what people feel. There are many observations involving different ways to express human emotions. Emotions are very interesting things, especially when they involve music. Music can have many personalities, affect people’s emotions, and be used as therapy.