Loudness constancy in healthy older adults: Effects of sound production and visual cues of music playing

Abstract

Loudness constancy refers to the phenomenon by which loudness remains constant in the presence of substantial changes in a physical stimulus caused by varying the sound distance. We investigated loudness constancy in healthy older adults. The degree of loudness constancy was measured using two methods of adjustment: “sound production,” by which listeners played a musical instrument as loudly as a model player, and “sound level adjustment,” by which listeners adjusted the loudness of the sound produced by a loudspeaker. The target sound was produced by the actual musical instrument performance. Sound pressure levels of the stimuli were approximately 60, 75, and 86 dB(A). The distances between the performer and the participant were 2, 8, and 32 m. In both conditions, participants were asked to produce the level of sound pressure matching the stimulus. Results show that when visual cues of musical performance are available, sound production had more robust loudness constancy than the sound level adjustment method. These results support an earlier claim that audiovisual perception and imitation are necessary for musical learning and skill acquisition.