Sound attributes are independent variables manipulated to elicit dependent responses.

Evidence

The attributes of sound events are frequently called independent variables in experiment design and statistical analysis. In subjective tests, the independent variables are manipulated to produce different stimuli for testing, and when the selected test method is applied to the subjects, their responses (possibly after some post-processing) then yield the ‘dependent’ variable(s). — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 949

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines how acoustic attributes map onto the independent/dependent variable vocabulary of experimental design.