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auditory illusion

{{Short description|False perceptions of a real sound or outside stimulus}}

Auditory illusions are illusions of real sound or outside stimulus.{{cite journal|doi=10.1121/1.1981302|title=Auditory Illusions as Caused by Embedded Sounds|year=1972|last1=Scott|first1=Brian L.|last2=Cole|first2=Ronald A.|journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America|volume=51|issue=1A|page=112|bibcode=1972ASAJ...51R.112S|doi-access=free}} These false perceptions are the equivalent of an optical illusion: the listener hears either sounds which are not present in the stimulus, or sounds that should not be possible given the circumstance on how they were created.{{cite web |title=Auditory illusion: How our brains can fill in the gaps to create continuous sound |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091125134655.htm |website=Science Daily |access-date=February 20, 2019}}

Humans are fairly susceptible to illusions, despite an innate ability to process complex stimuli. Confirmation bias is believed to be largely responsible for the inaccurate judgments that people make when evaluating information, given that humans typically interpret and recall information that appeals to their own biases.{{Cite journal|last=Brundage|first=Steven|date=2016|title=Fooled By FLUENCY: UNDERSTANDING ILLUSIONS AND MISJUDGMENTS IN MUSIC LEARNING|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26385737|journal=American Music Teacher|volume=66|issue=2|pages=10–13|jstor=26385737|issn=0003-0112}} Amongst these misinterpretations, known as illusions, falls the category of auditory illusions. The brain uses multiple senses simultaneously to process information,

spatial information is processed with greater detail and accuracy in vision than in hearing.{{Cite journal|last1=Guttman|first1=Sharon E.|last2=Gilroy|first2=Lee A.|last3=Blake|first3=Randolph|date=2005|title=Hearing What the Eyes See: Auditory Encoding of Visual Temporal Sequences|journal=Psychological Science|volume=16|issue=3|pages=228–235|doi=10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00808.x|jstor=40064206|pmid=15733204|pmc=1431611|issn=0956-7976}}{{Cite journal|last=O'Callaghan|first=Casey|date=2011|title=Lessons from beyond vision (sounds and audition)|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41487621|journal=Philosophical Studies|volume=153|issue=1|pages=143–160|doi=10.1007/s11098-010-9652-7|jstor=41487621|s2cid=7486290|issn=0031-8116|url-access=subscription}}

{{cite journal|title=What Are Musical Paradox and Illusion?|journal=American Journal of Psychology|year=2007|volume=120|issue=1|pages=124, 132|url=http://deutsch.ucsd.edu/pdf/ben_carson_review_AJP.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://deutsch.ucsd.edu/pdf/ben_carson_review_AJP.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|access-date=15 November 2013|editor1-first=Dominic W.|editor1-last=Massaro|publisher=University of California, Santa Cruz}} Auditory illusions highlight areas where the human ear and brain, as organic survival tools, differentiate from perfect audio receptors; this shows that it is possible for a human being to hear something that is not there and be able to react to the sound they supposedly heard. When someone is experiencing an auditory illusion, their brain is falsely interpreting its surroundings and distorting their perception of the world around them.{{Cite journal|last=KAYSER|first=CHRISTOPH|date=2007|title=Listening with your Eyes|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24939602|journal=Scientific American Mind|volume=18|issue=2|pages=24–29|doi=10.1038/scientificamericanmind0407-24|jstor=24939602|issn=1555-2284|url-access=subscription}}

Causes

Many auditory illusions, particularly of music and of speech, result from hearing sound patterns that are highly probable, even though they are heard incorrectly. This is due to the influence of our knowledge and experience of many sounds we have heard.{{cite book | last=Deutsch| first=D.| title=Musical Illusions and Phantom Words: How Music and Speech Unlock Mysteries of the Brain | year=2019 | url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/musical-illusions-and-phantom-words-9780190206833| publisher=Oxford University Press| lccn=2018051786| author-link=Diana Deutsch|isbn=9780190206833 }} In order to prevent hearing echo created by perceiving multiple sounds coming from different spaces, the human auditory system relates the sounds as being from one source.{{Citation|last=Deutsch|first=Diana|title=Auditory Illusions|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412972000.n56|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Perception|year=2010|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|publisher=SAGE Publications, Inc.|doi=10.4135/9781412972000.n56|isbn=978-1-4129-4081-8|access-date=2020-11-08|url-access=subscription}} However, that does not prevent people from being fooled by auditory illusions. Sounds that are found in words are called embedded sounds, and these sounds are the cause of some auditory illusions. A person's perception of a word can be influenced by the way they see the speaker's mouth move, even if the sound they hear is unchanged.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hear.com/useful-knowledge/auditory-illusions/|title=Auditory Illusions: How your ears can be fooled|website=hear.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-19}} For example, if someone is looking at two people saying "far" and "bar", the word they will hear will be determined by who they look at.{{Cite web|url=https://www.iflscience.com/brain/do-you-hear-what-i-hear-amazing-auditory-illusions-explained/|title=Do You Hear What I Hear? Amazing Auditory Illusions Explained|website=IFLScience|language=en|access-date=2019-04-21}} If these sounds are played in a loop, the listener will be able to hear different words inside the same sound.{{Cite journal|last1=Scott|first1=Brian L.|last2=Cole|first2=Ronald A.|date=1972-01-01|title=Auditory Illusions as Caused by Embedded Sounds|url=https://asa.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1121/1.1981302|journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America|volume=51|issue=1A|pages=112|doi=10.1121/1.1981302|bibcode=1972ASAJ...51R.112S|issn=0001-4966|doi-access=free}} People with brain damage can be more susceptible to auditory illusions and they can become more common for that person.{{Cite journal|last1=Fukutake|first1=Toshio|last2=Hattori|first2=Takamichi|date=1998-11-01|title=Auditory illusions caused by a small lesion in the right medial geniculate body|url=https://n.neurology.org/content/51/5/1469|journal=Neurology|language=en|volume=51|issue=5|pages=1469–1471|doi=10.1212/WNL.51.5.1469|issn=0028-3878|pmid=9818885|s2cid=8928159|url-access=subscription}}

In music

Composers have long been using the spatial components of music to alter the overall sound experienced by the listener.{{Cite journal|last=Begault|first=Durand R.|date=1990|title=The Composition of Auditory Space: Recent Developments in Headphone Music|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1578465|journal=Leonardo|volume=23|issue=1|pages=45–52|doi=10.2307/1578465|jstor=1578465|s2cid=191375886|issn=0024-094X|url-access=subscription}} One of the more common methods of sound synthesis is the use of combination tones. Combination tones are illusions that are not physically present as sound waves, but rather, they are created by one's own neuromechanics.{{Cite journal|last1=Kendall|first1=Gary S.|last2=Haworth|first2=Christopher|last3=Cádiz|first3=Rodrigo F.|date=2014|title=Sound Synthesis with Auditory Distortion Products|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24265446|journal=Computer Music Journal|volume=38|issue=4|pages=5–23|doi=10.1162/COMJ_a_00265|jstor=24265446|s2cid=15744586|issn=0148-9267|doi-access=free|hdl=2027/spo.bbp2372.2012.016|hdl-access=free}} According to Purwins,

{{cite book|last1=Purwins|first1=Hendrik|url=http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~purwins/purwinsPhD.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~purwins/purwinsPhD.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Profiles of pitch classes circularity of relative pitch and key-experiments, models, computational music analysis, and perspectives|year=2005|pages=110–120}}

auditory illusions have been used effectively by the following: Beethoven (Leonore Overture), Berg (Wozzeck), Krenek (Spiritus Intelligentiae, Sanctus), Ligeti (Études), Violin Concerto, Double Concerto, for flute, oboe and orchestra), Honegger (Pacific 231), and Stahnke (Partota 12).

Examples

There are a multitude of examples out in the world of auditory illusions. These are examples of some auditory illusions:

{{listen|filename=Risset_accelerando_beat1_MCLD.ogg|title=Risset's rhythmic effect. Forever accelerating beat.|description=|format=Ogg}}

{{listen|filename=DescenteInfinie.ogg|title=A Shepard–Risset glissando|description=|format=Ogg}}

See also

{{Portal|psychology|physics|music}}

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • [http://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology/ Diana Deutsch's Web Page]
  • [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091125134655.htm]

{{Auditory illusions}}

{{Music cognition}}

Category:Music psychology

Category:Psychoacoustics