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Sensation and Measurement pp 241–249Cite as

Effect of Spread of Excitation on the Loudness Function at 250 Hz

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Abstract

The loudness of a low-frequency 250-Hz tone was measured in quiet and in the presence of an adjacent band-pass noise. Loudness measurements were obtained by loudness matching, magnitude estimation, and magnitude production. Comparisons were made among the effects on loudness of the following noise bands: 390–2400 Hz, 345–2400 Hz, and 300–2400 Hz. The noise increased in intensity with the tone so that during a given listening session the signal-to-noise ratio remained constant at +10,0, or −l0dB. The data suggest that, when the high-frequency tail produced in the ear by the tone is completely masked, the effect of the noise is to decrease by 20% the slope (exponent) of the loudness function above 70 dB SPL. Otherwise, the loudness functions of the 250-Hz tone in noise and in quiet are essentially the same. The results are consistent with data available in the literature.

Parts of this paper were presented in April 1973 at the 85th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.

This research was supported by Grant NS-02974 from the National Institute of Health. I wish to thank J. L. Goldstein for valuable conversations at the inception of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Psychophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA

    Rhona P. Hellman

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  1. Rhona P. Hellman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Army Natick Laboratories, Natick, Massachusetts, USA, 01760

    Howard R. Moskowitz (Research Psychologist) (Research Psychologist)

  2. Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 02115

    Bertram Scharf (Professor of Psychology) (Professor of Psychology)

  3. John B. Pierce Foundation Laboratory, USA

    Joseph C. Stevens (Fellow, Research Associate and Lecturer in Psychology) (Fellow, Research Associate and Lecturer in Psychology)

  4. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, 06519

    Joseph C. Stevens (Fellow, Research Associate and Lecturer in Psychology) (Fellow, Research Associate and Lecturer in Psychology)

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© 1974 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht-Holland

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Hellman, R.P. (1974). Effect of Spread of Excitation on the Loudness Function at 250 Hz. In: Moskowitz, H.R., Scharf, B., Stevens, J.C. (eds) Sensation and Measurement. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2245-3_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2245-3_23

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-2247-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-2245-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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