Volume 1
A text-book of experimental psychology : with laboratory exercises / by Charles S. Myers.
- Charles Samuel Myers
- Date:
- 1911
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A text-book of experimental psychology : with laboratory exercises / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.
39/370 page 19
![ON AUDITORY SENSATIONS1 The Physical Basis of Pitch and Loudness.—In general, our auditory sensations are due to the occurrence of sound waves in the external air. These waves vary in length, in amplitude, and in form. Other things being equal, the shorter the wave length (i.e. the greater the vibration frequency) the higher in pitch will be the auditory sensa¬ tion ; and the greater the amplitude (i.e. the more distant the crest or trough of a wave from the position of equilibrium) the louder or more intense will be the auditory sensation. But these relations are only broadly true. For, as we shall see, the pitch and the loudness of our sensations do not always correspond to the wave length and the amplitude of the objective stimuli. [ The Conduction of Sounds to the Inner Ear.—Sounds which are of moderate pitch and loudness are led to the inner ear by the membranes and ossicles of the middle ear. It has been experimentally shown that the ossicles vibrate with a frequency dependent on the vibration frequency of the sound stimulus, and that they must consequently be regarded, not as a fixed conducting rod, but as a jointed, freely vibrating chain. If, however, the sounds be loud enough or be of sufficiently high pitch, they are audible to persons who through injury or disease have altogether lost this mem¬ branous and bony apparatus of the middle ear. It has been 1 The student is recommended to omit at his first reading those portions which are enclosed in square brackets [ ].](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3135984x_0001_0039.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
