Essential Information for this Course

Getting Started

Lectures will introduce students to the neuroanatomy and physiology of the auditory system; development and plasticity; how the brain is organised to identify and localise sound sources; and how the auditory system interacts with the brain's motor, speech, and language systems.

Tutorials will be practical, hands-on activities in which students will learn the fundamentals of digital signal acquisition and methods for processing and analysing sounds and speech signals. These digital signal processing (DSP) skills will complement and reinforce the lecture material; and serve as a base for future development of DSP skills in other cognitive science and linguistics applications, including electrophysiological signal analysis and neuroimaging.

Lectures

• Convener: Paul Sowman/ Judy Zhu

Teaching Staff: Paul Sowman, Harvey Dillon, Brent Edwards, Amanda Barnier, David McAlpine, Mridula Sharma, Iain Giblin, Michael Proctor

Tutors: TBA

Time: Weds 9 -10:30

Lectures: 14 Sir Christopher Ondaatje Ave – T3 Theatre

Practicals and Tutorials: 

• Lecture slides will be uploaded just before the lecture date under the lecture link in the relevant week below. Lecture recordings will be available through Echo360, accessible through the link on the right.

Tutorials

• Tutorials are held weekly, starting in Week 1 of Session 1. Please check eStudent for the time and location of your tutorial. Changes to tutorials need to be made online via eStudent only (neither the unit convenor nor the tutor can make changes to your tutorial enrolment). After week 2, no further changes will be allowed unless supporting documentation about the reason for changing is provided and there is space in the tutorial you wish to enrol in.

Textbook/Readings

• Recommended text: Schnupp J, Nelkin I, King A (2012). Auditory Neuroscience: Making Sense of Sound. MIT Press: Cambridge MA.
• Companion website with demos: https://auditoryneuroscience.com/ 

Weekly online quizzes

This unit has weekly online quizzes designed to keep you on track during the fast-paced semester (10 quizzes in total). Quizzes will be graded as full or no credit, and no partial credit will be given. To receive full credit on a quiz, you must correctly answer at least 50% of the multiple-choice questions. You will only receive credit for that quiz if you correctly answer at least 50% of the questions. No make-up quizzes will be permitted (except officially approved Disruption to Studies requests). However, your two lowest quizzes will be dropped at the end of the semester.

As indicated above, quizzes must be completed online each week before the tutorials and lectures. Only quizzes completed during this time window will be recorded. These quizzes are open-book.

To access the online quizzes:

1. Navigate to the appropriate week in iLearn (e.g., Week 2) and click on that week’s quiz (e.g., Week 2: Quiz).
2. Read the information provided about what Chapters or page numbers that quiz will cover (it’s open book!), and note the date and time the quiz will close.
3. Click “Attempt quiz now” to begin. After answering each multiple-choice question, click “Save and review”.
4. Next, ensure you have answered each question (i.e., “Answer saved”). If you have not answered a question (i.e., “Not yet answered”), click “Return to attempt”.
5. Once satisfied that you have answered every question, click “Submit all and finish”. This will submit your quiz for scoring and log your grade.
6. Finally, you can carefully review your answers to note which questions you did and did not answer correctly. The correct answer for each question will be given.
7. Click “Finish review” to exit. You can attempt the quiz again by selecting “Re-attempt quiz”, but only your first attempt will count towards your grade.

Questions about the unit

• If you have questions about the unit, the first place to check for answers is in the information provided in the unit guide and on this iLearn page.  If you cannot find your answer, we strongly encourage you to consult the General Discussion Forum on iLearn. The discussion forum can be a great resource for administrative and content-related questions. Plus, posting to the discussion forum means other students can join and benefit from the discussion.
• If you still cannot find the answer you seek, your tutor can answer most of the questions that you may have about the unit, including questions about the unit in general and specific questions about the tutorials. If you have trouble in this unit, you should approach your tutor first. You can contact your tutor before or after your tutorial via email or the dialogue tool on iLearn. Tutor contact details can be found at the top of this unit guide. Please note that your tutor is your first contact for any of these questions. The unit convenor can be contacted via email. 

Late penalty

• Late submissions will receive a 5% per day penalty including weekends and public holidays. If you submit the assessment task 10 days or more beyond the due date, you will be awarded a maximum of 50% of the overall assessment marks without an approved extension.

Requests for extensions, medical leave and/or disruption to studies:

• Please note that it is the student’s responsibility to notify the University of a disruption to their studies. All requests for extensions, medical leave and/or disruption to studies should be made before the due date for the assignment, and are to be made directly via the University’s online Ask MQ system (as outlined in the Disruption to Studies Policy). 

Uploading assignments via iLearn

• You are required to submit your Lab Reports via iLearn, using the Turnitin submission tool. Please use the following step-to-step guide on how to submit a Turnitin assignment.