Temporal Loudness Weights Are Frequency Specific.

Alexander Fischenich,Jesko Verhey,Daniel Oberfeld,Jan Hots

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.588571

Alexander Fischenich, Jesko Verhey + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.588571

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Abstract

Previous work showed that the beginning of a sound is more important for the perception of loudness than later parts. When a short silent gap of sufficient duration is inserted into a sound, this primacy effect reoccurs in the second sound part after the gap. The present study investigates whether this temporal weighting occurs independently for different frequency bands. Sounds consisting of two bandpass noises were presented in four different conditions: (1) a simultaneous gap in both bands, (2) a gap in only the lower frequency band, (3) a gap in only the higher frequency band, or (4) no gap. In all conditions, the temporal loudness weights showed a primacy effect at sound onset. For the frequency bands without a gap, the temporal weights decreased gradually across time, regardless of whether the other frequency band did or did not contain a gap. When a frequency band contained a gap, the weight at the onset of this band after the gap was increased. This reoccurrence of the primacy effect following the gap was again largely independent of whether or not the other band contained a gap. Thus, the results indicate that the temporal loudness weights are frequency specific.

Highlights

In loudness judgments of time-varying sounds, higher perceptual weights are assigned to the first few hundred milliseconds of a sound compared to later temporal portions (e.g., Namba et al, 1976; Ellermeier and Schrödl, 2000; Plank, 2005; Pedersen and Ellermeier, 2008; Dittrich and Oberfeld, 2009; Rennies and Verhey, 2009; Ponsot et al, 2013)
For each of the plotted lines, the weights are averaged across the spectral context, that is, across the two conditions where the other frequency band either did or did not contain a gap
The present study examined whether the temporal weights assigned to different frequency bands when listeners judge the overall loudness of a time-varying sound are frequency specific

Summary

Introduction

In loudness judgments of time-varying sounds, higher perceptual weights are assigned to the first few hundred milliseconds of a sound compared to later temporal portions (e.g., Namba et al, 1976; Ellermeier and Schrödl, 2000; Plank, 2005; Pedersen and Ellermeier, 2008; Dittrich and Oberfeld, 2009; Rennies and Verhey, 2009; Ponsot et al, 2013). This primacy effect can be described by an exponential decay function with a time constant of about 300 ms (Hots et al, 2018; Oberfeld et al, 2018; Fischenich et al, 2019). This primacy effect on the second sound part became more pronounced when the gap duration was further increased

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