Hearing depends on sequential physiological stages, each with distinct perceptual consequences when damaged.

Evidence

Our ability to hear sounds, then, is a consequence of outer and middle ear amplification, basilar membrane representation and auditory nerve firing. As we will see in other sections and chapters of this book, disorders of any of these physiological structures will lead to disruptions in psychophysical ability. The locus of that disruption, of course, influences the nature of the perceptual deficits. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 242

Categorization

• XREF: Sets up the framework that later chapters use to explain site-of-lesion-specific psychophysical deficits.