Listen to the shapes.Scientists have long suspected that vibrations emanating from, say, the surface of a drum contain meaningful acoustic clues to its circular shape. A new study finds that individuals can indeed distinguish whether a vibrating plate hidden from view is circular, rectangular, or triangular. "The shapes of thin, vibrating plates can be heard," conclude Andrew J. Kunkler-Peck of Brandeis University Brandeis University, at Waltham, Mass.; coeducational; chartered and opened 1948. Although Brandeis was founded by members of the American Jewish community, the university operates as an independent, nonsectarian institution. Its graduate school of arts and sciences was established in 1953. The university's Florence Heller School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare is well known, as is its Wien International Scholarship Program. in Waltham, Mass., and Michael T. Turvey of the University of Connecticut in Storrs Storrs (stôrz), community (1990 pop. 12,198), a part of the town of Mansfield, Tolland co., NE Conn. It is the seat of the Univ. of Connecticut.. The researchers say they plan to explore how specific sound frequencies influence auditory-shape perception. In one experiment, eight volunteers gave relatively accurate estimates of the heights and widths of three hidden, rectangular steel plates. The plates were suspended behind a screen and struck by a pendulum controlled by each listener. Using the same apparatus, another eight participants discerned the dimensions of vibrating steel, wood, and Plexiglas Plexiglas: see polyacrylics. plates. In further trials, volunteers successfully identified as circular, rectangular, or triangular each of a series of plates from these materials. Kunkler-Peck and Turvey's work appears in the February JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: HUMAN PERCEPTION AND PERFORMANCE. |
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