Sounds shorter than 200 ms are perceived quieter, scaled to burst length

Evidence

As well as frequency and amplitude, duration also has an effect on the perception of loudness, as shown in Figure 2.17 for a pure tone. Here we can see that once the sound lasts more than about 200 milliseconds, its perceived level does not change. However, when the tone is shorter than this, the perceived amplitude reduces. The perceived amplitude is inversely proportional to the length of the tone burst. This means that when we listen to sounds that vary in amplitude, the loudness level is not perceived significantly by short-amplitude peaks but more by the sound level averaged over 200 milliseconds. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 660

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the 200 ms integration window central to how the ear-measures loudness versus transient peaks.
• XREF: Explains why transient impulse peaks in noise (brief crashes, claps) don’t register as loud as sustained sounds — dovetails with psychoacoustic listening practice in Deep Listening.