Psychoacoustics


Type: Compulsory (OB)

Area: Acoustics

ECTS: 3

Total value in hours: 90
Classroom hours: 30
Other contact hours: 5
Time for directed work (non face-to-face): 20
Hours for self-study and independent learning: 35

Competences developed in the course

Transversal competences:

CT13: Pursue excellence and quality in professional activity.

CT17: Contribute through professional activity to social awareness of the importance of cultural heritage, its impact in different areas, and its ability to generate significant values.

General competences:

CG5: Understand the technological resources specific to their field of activity and their applications in music, preparing to assimilate new developments that emerge in this area.

CG21: Create and shape their own artistic concepts, having developed the ability to express themselves through them using acquired techniques and resources.

CG23: Value musical creation as the act of giving sonic form to a rich and complex structural thought.

CG24: Develop capacities for self-training throughout professional life.

CG25: Know and be able to use study and research methodologies that enable continuous development and innovation of musical activity throughout their career.

Specific competences:

SO2: Develop auditory skills that enable the recognition, memorisation and reproduction of a wide variety of musical materials, as well as the critical analysis of phenomena involved in listening and in the production of organised sound.

SO3: Apply technologies to the fields of musical creation, performance and public dissemination, and use technical resources that enable sound production and organisation, as well as the different approaches, applications and functionalities that underpin musical creation.

SO7: Understand the techniques and procedures of creation and support for musical, sound and audiovisual creative processes.

SO10: Be able to integrate art, technology and science, with sufficient flexibility to adapt to multiple and changing environments.

Learning outcomes (general objectives)

  1. Describe and explain the basic phenomena that originate a sound experience at a biological and functional level.
  1. Relate perceptual characteristics of sound to their physical characteristics.
  1. Develop sensitivity towards psychophysical perceptual phenomena and their influence on musical listening.
  1. Explain and apply the usual procedures for studying sound perception

Contents

Anatomy and physiology of the auditory system. Psychophysics and relationships between physical characteristics and perceptual sensations. Perception of sound intensity. Pitch perception. Physiological foundations of timbre perception. Spatial perception and movement of sounds. Experimental procedures in psychophysics and psychoacoustics. Technological applications of psychoacoustic phenomena and data. Experimentation and critical, systematic verification of different sound and musical perceptual phenomena.

Teaching methodology

The teaching-learning methodology in classes includes sessions of topic presentations by the teaching staff, discussion and seminar sessions, group work sessions, and sessions where students present topics.

Assessment systems

The assessment system is based on continuous assessment, founded on diagnostic evaluation and developed into summative assessment leading to the final grade. Continuous assessment is carried out through different assessment records derived from specific assessment activities such as participation and class work, presentation of assignments in class, completion of assignments and/or readings outside class, submission of written work, or written and oral examinations.