The effect of stimulus familiarity on magnitude‐estimation scaling of different languages

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine listener’s abilities to judge the subjective parameter of loudness of familiar and unfamiliar spoken languages. Two groups of subjects consisting of 20 adults each, ranging in age from 20–32 years, participated. Group 1 consisted of subjects who were familiar with English and not familiar with Hindi. Group 2 consisted of subjects who were familiar with English as well as Hindi. Two separate magnitude‐estimation scaling tasks were performed. For the first task, subjects in both groups were instructed to assign a numerical value that corresponded to the loudness of each of nine suprathreshold intensity levels of an English sentence. For the second task, subjects in both groups were instructed to assign a numerical value that corresponded to the loudness of each of nine suprathreshold intensity levels of the same sentence spoken in Hindi. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference between the two groups in the scaling of the English and Hindi sentences. Results suggested that magnitude‐estimation scaling appears to be an effective measure of loudness of familiar and unfamiliar languages, and that subjects scale the loudness of a familiar language the same way as they scale the loudness of an unfamiliar language.