A finger in the ear enables rapid 2-interval monaural-binaural loudness comparison

Evidence

The lack of summation in the Loudspeaker condition supports the observations made by Cox and Gray ( 2001 ) and by Epstein and Florentine ( 2009 , 2012 ), that, when monaural presentation is achieved by occluding one ear in a sound field, binaural summation can be dramatically reduced. … The lack of summation could have two logical causes. First, there may be some residual sound energy at the occluded ear that is sufficient to maintain its contribution to binaural loudness. Second, there may be some cognitive element which generates loudness constancy through the knowledge that one ear is occluded. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1544 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The small effect of stimulus type observed in experiment 1, was reversed in experiment 2. Taking these small and inconsistent effects together, we found no evidence that binaural loudness constancy is greater for more ecologically valid stimuli such as connected speech. Indeed, for both speech and noise, occlusion of the ear led to little reduction in loudness (a small summation effect), suggesting that loudness constancy occurs independently of stimulus type. It should be noted, however, that quite prominent reverberation was present in our experiment, which reliably cued the existence of an external sound source. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1561 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: A finger-tap ear occlusion enables rapid loudness matching within single trials; Occluding one ear in a sound field dramatically reduces binaural loudness summation — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1544; Binaural loudness constancy operates independently of stimulus type — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1561

Related

• A finger-tap ear occlusion enables rapid loudness matching within single trials (similarity 0.97)
• Binaural loudness constancy operates independently of stimulus type (similarity 0.94)
• Finger occlusion of one ear leaves perceived loudness of real external sounds nearly unchanged (similarity 0.91)
• Binaural loudness exceeds monaural loudness, more so for soft than loud sounds (similarity 0.90)
• Occluding one ear in a sound field dramatically reduces binaural loudness summation (similarity 0.89)
• Loss of externalisation when one earphone is deactivated may boost apparent loudness summation (similarity 0.89)
• Meatal occlusion dropping one ear’s loudness 52 percent should still produce measurable summation (similarity 0.89)
• Binaural loudness may exhibit constancy across conditions (similarity 0.89)
• Binaural loudness constancy depends on residual low-frequency cues and knowledge of ear occlusion (similarity 0.88)
• Finger occlusion enables rapid switching between monaural and binaural listening (similarity 0.88)
• Occlusion-based monaural hearing dramatically reduces binaural loudness summation. (similarity 0.87)
• Loudness summation shrinks dramatically for real-world external sound sources (similarity 0.87)
• Binaural loudness summation shrinks dramatically when one ear is occluded in a sound field. (similarity 0.87)
• Binaural loudness summation levels depend strongly on how monaural presentation is achieved. (similarity 0.87)
• Binaural sound is judged louder than the same sound heard monaurally (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• Occluding one ear in a sound field dramatically reduces binaural loudness summation #corroborates (0.85) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1544
• Binaural loudness constancy operates independently of stimulus type #complicates (0.75) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1561