Abstract
THIS section of Mr. Perrett's book is an attack on the resonance theory of hearing, and on all those who have written in support of it. It ishis avowed object “to lay the yammering ghost of ‘sympathetic resonance’ in the cochlea” (p. 44). His criticisms of the resonance theoryareunder three headings: (i) An attack upon Helmholtz's theory of beats ashe conceives it. The construction he puts upon Chapter VIII. of the “Tonempfindungen” is, in the reviewer's opinion, forced and unfair. (2) An uncorroborated personal experience of his own which leads him to the conclusion that the ear can distinguish two notes “in perfect physical unison” sounded simultaneously. (3) That speech sounds can terminate suddenly in a “voiceless-occlusion” consonant, consequently no “after vibrations” of the basilar fibres occur. Mr. Perrett quotes graphic speech records, but admits that the evidence drawn from them is inconclusive.
Some Questions of Phonetic Theory.
By Wilfrid Perrett. Chapter 6: The Mechanism of the Cochlea. Pp. 39–80. (Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd., 1923.) 2s. net.
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W., G. Some Questions of Phonetic Theory. Nature 112, 201 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112201a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112201a0