Loudness perception involves central mechanisms beyond cochlear vibration

Evidence

Although the perceived loudness of an acoustic sound is related to its amplitude, there is not a simple one-to-one functional relationship. As a psychoacoustic effect, it is affected by both the context and nature of the sound. It is also difficult to measure because it is dependent on the interpretation by listeners of what they hear. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 616 (#expands, via linked claim)

We propose to instead model the probabilistic nature of listener responses; these probabilistic representations can be used to improve loudness measurements and further our understanding of the mechanisms underlying this perception. At each stimulus level, there is a probability distribution across categorical loudness responses; when plotted as a function of stimulus level, these distributions form a multi-category psychometric function (MCPF), modeling the statistics of the listeners’ categorical perception. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2512 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

The loudness of a sound presented via headphones is perceived to be higher in the presence of a simultaneous tactile vibration produced with a whole-body shaker. The change in loudness corresponds to a change in level of about 1 dB (Merchel et al., 2009). In bass reproduction, the preferred level of acoustic sound is lower if a shaker is also used to reproduce low frequencies (Simon et al., 2009). Interestingly, this auditory–tactile loudness interaction does not depend significantly on the power of the vibration (Merchel et al., 2009). — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1826 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Recruitment can explain why loudness summation is absent in noise-induced hearing loss — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1960; Listeners with identical hearing thresholds differ in suprathreshold loudness perception — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2509; Distinct brain regions process sound intensity versus perceived loudness differently — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2607 (+12 more)

Related

• Loudness perception is probabilistic, with a response distribution at each stimulus level. (similarity 0.91)
• Perceived loudness does not map one-to-one onto acoustic amplitude (similarity 0.91)
• Loudness depends on more than physical sound intensity alone (similarity 0.90)
• Tactile vibration raises perceived loudness and lowers preferred bass levels (similarity 0.89)
• Loudness is perceptual and unmeasurable directly, while intensity is acoustic and directly quantifiable (similarity 0.89)
• Loudness perception is essentially logarithmic (similarity 0.88)
• Loudness judgments at a fixed level vary probabilistically across categories (similarity 0.88)
• Listeners with identical hearing thresholds differ in suprathreshold loudness perception (similarity 0.88)
• Loudness perception is a random variable at every stimulus level (similarity 0.88)
• Loudness depends on frequency, angle, duration, and envelope, not just level (similarity 0.88)
• Psychoacoustics quantifies physical sound signals into perceived auditory attributes (similarity 0.87)
• Loudness scales with frequency squared, requiring large amplitude at low frequencies (similarity 0.87)
• Auditory perception of the same physical sound varies between individuals (similarity 0.87)
• Distinct brain regions process sound intensity versus perceived loudness differently (similarity 0.87)
• Binaural loudness constancy is partly physical and partly cognitive in origin (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• Perceived loudness does not map one-to-one onto acoustic amplitude #expands (0.85) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 616
• Loudness judgments at a fixed level vary probabilistically across categories #exemplifies (0.80) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2512
• Tactile vibration raises perceived loudness and lowers preferred bass levels #complicates (0.75) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1826
• Perceived loudness and physical sound intensity follow different, non-intuitive mathematical scales #expands (0.70) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 53