Auditory bands from the same source are summed to compute total loudness

Evidence

The fact that the perceived loudness increases (instead of, say, decreasing or staying constant) is an interesting phenomenon. The perceived loudness can be assumed to be related to the broadening of the excitation pattern on the basilar membrane with the level of the signal, as shown in Figure 7.12. The increase in loudness with signals having a broader spectrum can be explained by the mechanism whereby the auditory bands analysed to originate from the same source are integrated, and the total loudness is computed from the sum of the signals from each auditory band. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1043

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the mechanism by which broadband signals seem louder: same-source auditory bands are integrated and summed.