Sound Sweeps

Sound Sweeps is an auditory exercise from BrainHQ’s Brain Speed category, designed to challenge your brain to speed up and sharpen listening accuracy. Only when the brain hears sounds quickly and clearly can it record them accurately, and only when it records them accurately can it remember them later.

Your task in Sound Sweeps is to listen to auditory sweeps—sounds that begin low and rise upward or begin high and fall downward—and identify whether they go up (“weep”) or down (“woop”).

It’s essential our brains can quickly tell frequency sweeps apart in order to understand speech. Although we don’t consciously notice such sweeps when we hear someone talk, many of the sounds common in speech, such as /p/, /d/, /t/, /g/, /k/, and others, are actually made up of a series of sweeps like the ones in the Sound Sweeps exercise.

Here’s how the exercise works:

1. A speaker icon will appear on screen to indicate that audio clips are being played. There will be two sweeps, played in quick succession.
   
2. Two arrows will appear on screen: an up arrow and a down arrow. Select the direction of the first sweep.
   • If you are correct, continue to Step 3 below.
   • If you are incorrect, go back to Step 1 above.
     

3. If the correct direction was selected, then the arrows will remain on screen. Select the direction of the second sweep.

Tip: If you’re training from a computer, you can use the left arrow key on your keyboard to select the “up” arrow or the right arrow key on your keyboard to select the “down” arrow.

If an incorrect answer is given, you’ll hear a “bonk” sound and the sweeps may lengthen. If a correct answer is given, you’ll hear a “boop” sound and the sweeps may shorten. In both cases, the level then continues, repeating from Step 1 above.

You can review the exercise video tutorial below:

Sound Sweeps from BrainHQ from Posit Science on Vimeo.

As you progress through Sound Sweeps, it becomes more challenging in these ways:

• Frequency: As you move through the levels, the sweeps change in frequency. Some will sound high, others low.
• Timing: As you move through the levels, the gap between the two sweeps changes. It’s harder when the gap is shorter.