Psychoacoustics in the pre-electronic, electronic, and early digital eras

Abstract

The history of psychoacoustics can be subdivided into three eras, Pre-electronic, Electronic, and Digital. We are currently in the middle of the Digital era. Psychoacousticians displayed remarkable ingenuity in furthering our understanding of auditory perception using the limited technology of the day. The brilliant use of spinning discs, innovative pulse generators, tuning forks provided fascinating new insights into the nature of hearing. The Electronic era began with the invention of the electronic amplifier. The high gain provided by electronic amplifiers opened the door to new areas of investigation. Fundamental new findings regarding non-linear distortion and protective auditory mechanisms resulted as well as the emergence of the field of audiology. Psychoacoustic research during the Electronic era focused more on the spectral properties of hearing, presumably because of the greater difficulty in manipulating pulsate stimuli. The invention of the digital computer provided the means for generating, analyzing and manipulating pulsate stimuli with the same degree of ease as spectral stimuli. The early Digital era thus resulted in major new findings relating to both the temporal and spectral properties of hearing. More importantly, it changed our thinking with respect to the measurement of hearing.