Listener personality biases reported auditory thresholds across subjects

Evidence

When a listening test is organized and subjects are asked whether they perceive the auditory event, the description function bo = f(hi) also comes in to play. For example, the personal character of the listener may have a large influence on the description, as typically some subjects tend to perceive auditory events although there are no sound events, and other subjects are more insecure and report an auditory event only when it is very clearly audible. This is illustrated conceptually in Figure 8.2. The rate of reporting that the signal is present is shown as a function of the signal level for two types of subjects: ‘optimistic’ and ‘neutral’. Clearly, the test would produce very different threshold values if the stimulus level producing the rate of ‘signal present’ with a value of 50% was taken as the value of the threshold, as shown in the figure with vertical dashed lines. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 886

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to signal detection theory and the response-bias problem familiar from psychophysics (e.g. Gescheider) and from yes/no testing methodology in hearing science. — connects to: Noise-sensitive people differ physiologically and psychologically from non-sensitive ones — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 925; Psychoacoustic testing measures subjective listener opinions under controlled independent variables — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 2360