In several applied contexts (e.g., earwitness testimony), the accurate recognition of unfamiliar voices can be a critical part of the person identification process. However, recognising unfamiliar voices is prone to error. While such errors could be reduced by testing the proficiency of listeners, the established tests of unfamiliar voice matching…

The Mayan city of Chichen Itza is full of legends and mysticism. There, in the temple of Kukulkan, in front of a great pyramid with 91 central staircases, an interesting physical-acoustic phenomenon occurs that has fed mythical stories attributed to the Mayas. When clapping your hands in front of the steps, the echo sounds very different from the…

Purpose: Auditory feedback perturbation with voice pitch manipulation has been widely used in previous studies. There are several hardware and software tools for such manipulations, but audio plug-ins developed for music, movies, and radio applications that operate in digital audio workstations may be extremely beneficial and are easy to use,…

Pulsed-wave Doppler ultrasound is a widely used technique for monitoring pregnancies. As ultrasound equipment becomes more advanced, it becomes harder to train practitioners to be proficient in the procedure as it requires the presence of an expert, access to high-tech equipment as well as several volunteering patients. Immersive environments such…

Purpose: Various aspects of speech production related to auditory-motor integration and learning have been examined through auditory feedback perturbation paradigms in which participants' acoustic speech output is experimentally altered and played back via earphones/headphones "in real time." Scientific rigor requires high precision in…

In recent years, with the more powerful functions of smartphones, the use of sensors integrated by mobile phones as an auxiliary tool for physical experiment teaching has become more popular. Combined with the related mobile phone apps, people easily can develop and expand the physical experiment contents of mechanics, optics, acoustic phenomena,…

Purpose: Assessment of strained voice quality is difficult due to the weak reliability of auditory-perceptual evaluation and lack of strong acoustic correlates. This study evaluated the contributions of relative fundamental frequency (RFF) and mid-to-high frequency noise to the perception of strain. Method: Stimuli were created using recordings of…

The labs presented here build on a simple speed of sound activity and models medical ultrasound imaging by demonstrating how multiple reflections propagate in a closed system. A short sound pulse is emitted into a pipe that is closed at one end and contains one or more partially reflecting surfaces within the pipe. The variety of reflections and…

Asynchronous video-based educational resources allow for increased course material engagement. In today's climate, educators are encouraged to create videos for online instruction but are typically given limited production guidance. Few formal resources exist to guide educators for high-quality video production in a non-studio setting. This…

Purpose: The speech motor system uses feedforward and feedback control mechanisms that are both reliant on prediction errors. Here, we developed a state-space model to estimate the error sensitivity of the control systems. We examined (a) whether the model accounts for the error sensitivity of the control systems and (b) whether the two systems…

Computer-assisted pronunciation teaching (CAPT) for second-language learners has made great strides in recent years. While once small in number and confined to desktop computers, a great variety of CAPT resources are available online today. These resources provide instructional activities of various types, utilize different sensory modalities, and…

Three categories of audio recordings, a web service platform, and commercial software were involved in this analysis process. The three categories of audio recordings included eight filtered student recordings, an audio recording provided by a Mandarin instructor from University Malaysia Sabah, and an audio recording generated by Text-to-Speech…

Purpose: Sarcasm is a specialized speech act in daily vocal communication usually characterized by unique prosodic features, but the role of voice quality in expressing sarcasm has not been explored much. The goal of this study is to explore the voice quality features of Mandarin sarcastic speech in comparison to sincere speech. Method: Fifteen…

Inexpensive alternatives to a number of classic introductory physics sound laboratories are presented including interference phenomena, resonance conditions, and frequency shifts. These can be created using earbuds, economical supplies such as Giant Pixie Stix® wrappers, and free software available for PCs and mobile devices. We describe two…

Automated alignment of transcriptions to audio files expedites the process of preparing data for acoustic analysis. Unfortunately, the benefits of auto-alignment have generally been available only to researchers studying majority languages, for which large corpora exist and for which acoustic models have been created by large-scale research…