Binaural sound is judged louder than the same sound heard monaurally

Evidence

When the same sound is presented to both ears, it is perceived to be louder than when it is presented to one ear only (Fletcher and Munson 1933 ). As a result, the loudness of diotically and monaurally presented stimuli, usually tones or noise, has been found to be equivalent when the monaural stimulus is between 3 and 10 dB more intense (Fletcher and Munson 1933 ; Reynolds and Stevens 1960 ; Zwicker and Zwicker 1991 ; Sivonen and Ellermeier 2006 ; Whilby et al. 2006 ; Edmonds and Culling 2009 ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1527

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines binaural loudness summation quantitatively: the monaural stimulus must be 3-10 dB more intense to match diotic loudness.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1527
• XREF: connects to: Binaural loudness exceeds monaural loudness, more so for soft than loud sounds; Low-frequency residual sound may contribute disproportionately to binaural loudness; Occluding one ear in a sound field dramatically reduces binaural loudness summation — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1544 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Occluding one ear in a sound field dramatically reduces binaural loudness summation #corroborates (0.90) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1544
• Low-frequency residual sound may contribute disproportionately to binaural loudness #expands (0.85)
• Even small asymmetries between ears reduce binaural summation #corroborates (0.85)