Visual and contextual cues bias human judgments of sound quality

Evidence

For example, the sound of a red car is perceived to be louder than a blue or green one, with a difference corresponding to 1–3 dB of SPL (Menzel et al., 2008). The audio track also influences eye movements and the direction of gaze, and sound has been shown to strengthen the salience of corresponding visual events (Coutrot et al., 2012). — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1822 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Figure 10.1 shows that in the blind tests, there were two pairs of statistically indistinguishable loudspeakers: the two European “voicings” of the same hardware were rated significantly higher than the other two products, which were also in a statistical tie. In the sighted version of the test, loyal employees gave the big attractive Harman products even higher scores, still tied. However, the little inexpensive sub/sat system dropped significantly in the ratings; apparently its unappealing black plastic exterior overcame employee loyalty. Obviously, something small and inexpensive cannot compete with something large and stylishly crafted of highly polished wood. The large, attractive competitor improved its rating but not enough to win out over the local product. It all seemed very predictable from the biasing influences. … In general, seeing the loudspeakers changed what listeners thought they heard. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1058 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Subjects bias adjustment experiments by setting sounds louder for good audibility; Vision and sound expectations must concord for convincing audio-scene perception; Context-dependent compensation shapes sound perception much as with color vision (+18 more)

Related

• Context-dependent compensation shapes sound perception much as with color vision (similarity 0.91)
• Visual gesticulation, not sound, dominates judgments of musical performance (similarity 0.88)
• Visual color affects perceived loudness of the same sound (similarity 0.88)
• Brand, cost, and prior exposure bias subjective audio judgments (similarity 0.86)
• Visual appearance of loudspeakers shifts listener preference ratings (similarity 0.85)
• Non-auditory factors strongly bias loudspeaker purchase preferences in sighted listening (similarity 0.85)
• Product sound quality depends on task context, not just pleasantness. (similarity 0.84)
• Subjects bias adjustment experiments by setting sounds louder for good audibility (similarity 0.84)
• Seeing the loudspeakers during evaluation actively stresses trained listeners (similarity 0.84)
• Sighted loudspeaker evaluations are contaminated by non-auditory visual and social cues (similarity 0.83)
• Sound quality judgments depend on listener context and expectations (similarity 0.83)
• Vision dominates hearing in localization, identification, and size judgment (similarity 0.82)
• Auditory assessment must account for the listener’s response bias, not just sensitivity (similarity 0.82)
• Subjective experience dictates which measurements matter in audio research (similarity 0.82)
• Sighted listeners recall prior ratings and ignore audible position differences (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Visual color affects perceived loudness of the same sound #exemplifies (0.95) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1822
• Visual appearance of loudspeakers shifts listener preference ratings #exemplifies (0.90) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1058
• Cognitive context determines whether a sound feature is good or bad #expands (0.85)
• Microphone choice in recordings biases subjective loudspeaker ratings #exemplifies (0.80) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 134
• Visual gesticulation, not sound, dominates judgments of musical performance #expands (0.75) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 45
• Visual bias consistently outranks sound in public nature exhibits #exemplifies (0.75) — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1379