Inquiry-Based Learning: Cognitive Measures & Systems Support (Home)

Cognitive Science: Sound, Music, & Mind

A second project in cognitive science, centered on psychoacoustics and music perception, was also initiated. This project represents an exploration of ideas presented in our proposal about building inquiry-oriented software around self-contained computer-based laboratory environments. Built-in digital audio capabilities make the current desktop computer a very capable and comprehensive lab for the study of sound, hearing, and audio technology. PI Stillings has developed a course, called Sound, Music, & Mind, that is organized around laboratories and research projects that exploit the sound analysis and synthesis capabilities of current computers.

Paradoxically, current multimedia authoring tools do not give the developer the ability to manipulate sound in the way that is required for laboratory science. In the summer of 1998 Daniel O'Connor, an undergraduate assistant on the project, worked to extend the architecture of MacroMedia Director in such a way that interactive versions of Stillings's labs could be programmed relatively easily. Director has an open architecture that allows functionality to be added to the environment by developing external programs, called Xtras, that can be called seamlessly from within Director itself. O'Connor developed a sound Xtra that supports additive synthesis and the extraction of arbitrary portions of prerecorded sound files for digital processing.



At the close of the 1998-99 academic year either CHAT or Sound, Music, and Mind will be selected for further development under the current grant. Our target is to fully develop three applications, one of which is in cognitive science.

Example Experiment from Sound, Music, & Mind: Virtual Pitch

  1. Set up six tracks in a SoundEdit window. Put a 1 sec. sine wave at 15% amplitude in each track, such that the frequencies of the sine waves form the first 6 partials of a harmonic series, in order from top to bottom.

  2. Select all tracks and play them back simultaneously, attending to the pitch that you hear. Which of your individual partials should best match the pitch of all together? Check your prediction.
  3. Select the 3rd through the 6th partials and play them back simultaneously, attending to the pitch that you hear. Which of your individual partials should best match the pitch of these 4 partials played together? Check your prediction.
  4. Describe your results as carefully as possible. What is interesting or intriguing about your results? Hint: Do the 3rd through the 6th partials form a harmonic series?
  5. Set up further demonstrations to explore your observations further.
  6. Can you think of any possible explanations of your observations?

Possible student set up