The auditory system largely ignores signal phase, driving spectral analysis conventions

Evidence

For sound signals, the concept of spectrum analysis typically refers to a representation of the magnitude spectrum only, because, as is well known, the auditory system is relatively insensitive to the phase of a signal. The motivation to use the logarithmic dB scale for the magnitude spectrum comes from the fact that we perceive the level of a signal more logarithmically than linearly. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 379

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains why spectral analysis conventionally means magnitude-only: a perceptual fact about the ear shapes a whole technical tradition.
• QUESTION: The caveat that the ear ‘deviates from simple Fourier analysis’ in detailed behavior — worth chasing for where phase does matter perceptually.