Perceived loudness can be measured by iterative ratio-matching across subjects

Evidence

Subjects are given the task of adjusting a test tone with the same frequency as the reference tone to two times (or half) the loudness of the reference tone. The adjusted tone then becomes the reference tone, and the process is continued. There may be individual differences in terms of how the phrase ‘twice as loud’ is interpreted, and the adjusted level may be different in each trial (Fastl and Zwicker, 2007). However, when the results from a large set of subjects and from many repetitions of the same task are averaged, and when an anchor point is selected, a psychophysical function is obtained which describes the relation between the level of a tone and perceived loudness. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1126

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the experimental methodology (iterative doubling/halving with averaging) behind the loudness psychophysical function.
• XREF: connects to: Psychoacoustics quantifies physical sound signals into perceived auditory attributes — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 976