Some factors influencing loudness asymmetries between rising and falling-intensity stimuli

Emmanuel Ponsot (1) , Sabine Meunier (2) , Patrick Susini (1)

1 Equipe Perception et design sonores
2 Sons

Previous research demonstrated that the loudness asymmetry between 1-kHz rising and fallingintensity tones is a robust phenomenon, whose origins still remain unclear. In the present study, this phenomenon was further examined as a function of two stimuli characteristics: the spectral content and the intensity-region. In a first experiment, the global loudness of rising and falling-intensity sounds with various spectral contents (pure tones from 250 Hz to 8 kHz and broadband noises) presented in different intensity-regions (from [50-65 dB SPL] to [70-85 dB SPL]) was assessed in an absolute magnitude estimation task. Significant asymmetries were found for tones at all frequencies, but not for broadband noises. In addition, a significant interaction between the stimulus direction and the intensity-region was observed for both tones and noises. This interaction was further examined in a second experiment using an adaptive loudness-matching procedure. Although greater asymmetries were again observed for tones, significant asymmetries were found for noises as well. Furthermore, the size of the asymmetries was significantly decreased with the intensity-region when the pairs were composed of rising followed by falling stimuli. These results are discussed in the light of recent physiological and neuroscience studies conducted with this type of stimuli.

Domaines: Psychologie; Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

Emmanuel Ponsot, Sabine Meunier, Patrick Susini. Some factors influencing loudness asymmetries between rising and falling-intensity stimuli. the 170th ASA meeting, Nov 2015, Jacksonville, United States. pp.1919. ⟨hal-01255999⟩