Thresholds and auditory scales link physical sound attributes to perceived auditory events

Evidence

In psychoacoustic experiments, sound events are presented, and a question is asked of the subjects, which they should answer based on the properties of the auditory event created by the sound event. Ideally, they should respond to the question such that the attribute being investigated is revealed in the results of the tests. Typical properties which are measured are different thresholds. The relation between attributes of sound events and attributes of auditory events, that is, psychophysical functions in general, is also of interest. Auditory scales quantify these relations. Thresholds and scales used are briefly introduced below. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 880

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes sound event (physical) from auditory event (perceptual), the field’s central definitional pair.
• XREF: connects to: Psychoacoustics quantifies physical sound signals into perceived auditory attributes — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 976; Hearing acts as a spectral analyser extracting quantifiable perceptual metrics from sound — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1572