Blind tests group listeners by judgment variability to reveal hearing effects

Evidence

Figure 10.8 is a revealing display of how listeners with different hearing abilities judge sound quality. Listeners evaluated four loudspeakers in a monophonic multiple-comparison blind test. Each dot is the mean of several judgments on each of the products, made by one listener. To illustrate the effect of hearing level on ratings, listeners were grouped according to the variability in their judgments: those who exhibited standard deviations below 297. 0.5 scale unit and those above that. The low-variability listener results are shown in the white areas and the high-variability results are in the shaded areas. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1074

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Blind listening tests make subjective sound judgments objective and repeatable — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 87; Even modest hearing loss increases variability in sound quality judgments; Listeners with hearing loss form a heterogeneous perceptual group, not a single category — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1092 (+2 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Blind listening tests make subjective sound judgments objective and repeatable — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 87; Even modest hearing loss increases variability in sound quality judgments; Listeners with hearing loss form a heterogeneous perceptual group, not a single category — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1092 (+2 more)