Temat wiodący

Bieżące prace eksperymentalne w zakresie psychoakustyki prowadzone są głównie za pomocą komputera służącego zarówno do generowania i prezentacji bodźców jak również do gromadzenia odpowiedzi słuchaczy w oparciu o specjalistyczny program. Stworzenie takiego oprogramowania jest czasochłonne i wymaga wiedzy technicznej, co w przypadku początkujących badaczy może być sporym wyzwaniem. Dlatego też celem
niniejszej pracy było opracowanie pakietu aplikacji, który umożliwia konfigurowanie i prowadzanie szerokiej gamy eksperymentów w dziedzinie psychoakustyki bez potrzeby każdorazowego przygotowywania oprogramowania.

Ongoing experimental work in the field of psychoacoustics is mainly carried out using a computer that is used both to generate and present stimuli and to collect listeners’ responses. Preparation of such specialized software is time consuming and requires technical knowledge, which in the case of beginner researchers can be a challenge. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to develop a software package that allows the user to configure and conduct a wide range of experiments in the field of psychoacoustics without the need for time-consuming software preparation. In the presented set of programs, the parameters defining the stimuli and the experimental procedure are entered using appropriate fields on the screen and drop-down menus. Experiments that can be carried out include measurement of absolute threshold, backward, simultaneous and forward masking; comodulation masking release (CMR); intensity and frequency discrimination; detection and discrimination of amplitude and frequency modulation; modulation detection/discrimination interference (MDI); thresholds for detecting interaural time and intensity differences, detection of temporal gaps in a signal, measurement of sensitivity to the temporal fine structure of a signal (TFS), determination of the binaural masking level difference (BMLD), and the determination of psychophysical tuning curves using the fast method (Fast PTC). The software can be useful both for ongoing research in the field of auditory perception and for students of acoustics (or related fields) by giving them the opportunity to conduct independent psychophysical experiments, which will certainly enrich their knowledge in the field of auditory perception.