Re: Bates's question about claps

[Eckard Blumschein <Eckard.Blumschein@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 22:23 15.05.2001 +0200, Alexandra Hettergott wrote:
>Imho, why not simply assume a (grouped) mental representation of the
>(tonal) phenomenon of a clapping crowd ....
>....stimulus (phase) density,....

Each single clap already has a broadband spectrum. Asynchronous clapping is
a noise that largely lacks spectral features. It is anything but tonal.
Forget spectral analysis and tonotopy in that case. We have to understand
how in particular the high-CF AN-fibers mediate random modulation. Wasn't
Al quite right when he pointed to logical inversion? I imagine already
neurons in cochlear nucleus and inferior colliculus pre-extracting some
features via excitatory as well as inhibitory cooperation.
Don't believe that quality of clapping cannot be judged. I thoroughly dealt
with a similar sound from arc welding where the welder is paid for
adjusting the process by ear much more subtly accurately that any automatic
control system. To a lesser degree we are able to recognize whether
clapping is frenetic, more moderate, just polite, modest, reluctant, or
whatsoever.
The temporal structure can be described by statistical parameters. I am not
sure whether my knowledge of terms like standard deviation, variance,
slant, median, etc. is correct, and I doubt the more that there are already
adequate psychoacoustic parameters. Presumably, audition outperforms any
pertaining mathematical theory by far. I merely conclude from the obvious
abundance of describing words like bong, boom, whang, wham, wheezy,
whistle, whicker, whimper, whine, whirr, whisp, whist, whistle, whizz,
whoosh, and whuff that there are perhaps scores of learned temporal
patterns of more or less similar to each other natural sounds rather than a
comprehensive and well organized system of clearly separated streams and
groups to simply figure out. The welders used to say: Short arc welding is
best if it is sizzling like bacon in a pan.

Eckard
http://iesk.et.uni-magdeburg.de/~blumsche/M30.html
http://iesk.et.uni-magdeburg.de/~blumsche/M60.html