Re: Implicit human echolocation

[Peter Lennox <P.Lennox@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ah! - thanks - I thought it was a language thing. In fact, I draw no
substantive distinction between the reception of signals and the
interpretation. For example, in respect of pinnae effects, direction is
encoded as spectral modifications, but what is heard is direction.
regards
ppl


>>> Barry Blesser <bblesser@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 01/06/2007 16:13 >>>
Any discussion about how we experience sounds immediately reveals the
lack
of a consistent vocabulary. Each author uses words as they see fit. One
has
such words as detection, awareness, decoding, perception,
meaningfulness,
significance, cognition, and so on. Similarly, one has theory, model,
heuristic, concept, and so on. When I was doing a review of the
literature,
I was constantly struck by the difficulty of language.

To really understand the problem of language, I very strongly recommend
Guy
Deutscher's book, The Unfolding of Language. An Evolutionary Tour of
Mankind's Greatest Invention.

Now back to the discussion of echolocation. I distinguish between
hearing
(perception) something and giving it a (interpretation) meaning. Most
everyone can hear a spectral difference of a modest boost in low
frequency
background noise, but few can translate what that perception into a
sense of
distance to a wall.

Barry


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