Hearing sensations correlate with stimulus magnitudes but only within the audible range

Evidence

The most important physical magnitude for psychoacoustics is the time function of sound pressure. The stimulus can be described by physical means in terms of sound pressure level, frequency, duration and so on. The physical magnitudes mentioned are correlated with the psychophysical magnitudes loudness, pitch, and subjective duration, which are called hearing sensations. However, it should be mentioned that the pitch of a pure tone depends not only on its frequency, but also to some extent on its level. Nonetheless, the main correlate of the hearing sensation pitch is the stimulus quantity frequency. Physical stimuli only lead to hearing sensations if their physical magnitudes lie within the range relevant for the hearing organ. For example, frequencys below 20 Hz and above about 20 kHz dot not lead to a hearing sensation whatever their stimulus magnitude. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 123

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the core distinction between physical stimulus magnitudes (Pa, dB) and psychophysical sensation magnitudes (sone) — the foundational vocabulary of psychoacoustics.
• XREF: The sone/Pa distinction parallels the figure-ground/signal distinction in soundscape studies and the perceptual-versus-physical scale point elsewhere in this reading set.