Chapter 5: Listening and Perceptions Homework Instructions
1. Describe in full detail the experiment or situation presented in the video or
link.
The video I chose to watch was Hearing with Your Brain. This video is
designed as a test trial where volunteers from the street are asked to test
a new brand of headphones and to give their opinions on the sound
quality. Unbeknownst to them the headphones are being manipulated by
hidden crew members, at first the volunteers hear good vibrations or
music which the brain interprets as pleasant. The volunteers seem in good
spirits with the first set of sounds and overall have positive opinions on
the headphones.
Soon after, the volunteers are given sounds that are not pleasant, and we
instantly see their body language, facial expressions and even physical
reactions develop in a negative manner. The question asked in the video
was “why do we have such physical reactions to nothing more than
unpleasant noise? How does the brain sense sound? They stated sounds
are measured by hertz, then travel to the Amygdala which is the humans
fight or flight area in our brains. The Amygdala then associates certain
frequency ranges as a danger. In all our bodies have adapted to respond
to sound as either good or bad as a survival instinct that we still encounter
today.
Hearing with your brain. (2023, October 19). [Video].
https://education.nationalgeographic.org.;https://education.nationalgeogra
phic.org/resource/hearing-your-brain/#hearing-with-your-brain
2. What did you see/experience when you first looked at it?
When I first looked at this video, I experienced the initial happiness of the
volunteers, which I personally can relate too. Listening to good vibrations
or music also makes me happy or excited. But after the “bad” sounds
were introduced, I noticed I was making weird facial expressions along
with them. Especially when the vomit sound was introduced, I too almost
gagged. It is interesting to learn how humans are not so different from
animals as well, animals are keen to associate certain sounds with danger,
mating or simple communication within their communities. Sound plays
such a vital role in our day-to-day life that not having it would complicate
things, unless we adapted to something different such as sonar, which is
far-fetched for humans of course. But it also makes me appreciate every
sound whether pleasurable or not.