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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Behavioral Assessment of Hearing in 2 to 4 Year-old Children: A Two-interval, Observer-based Procedure Using Conditioned Play-based Responses
Published on: January 23, 2017
Magnitude judgments of loudness change for discrete, dynamic, and hybrid stimuli
Richard E Pastore1, Jesse Flint
1Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA. pastore@binghamton.edu
Abstract:
Recent investigations of loudness change within stimuli have identified differences as a function of direction of change and power range (e.g., Canévet, Acustica, 62, 2136-2142, 1986; Neuhoff, Nature, 395, 123-124, 1998), with claims of differences between dynamic and static stimuli. Experiment 1 provides the needed direct empirical evaluation of loudness change across static, dynamic, and hybrid stimuli. Consistent with recent findings for dynamic stimuli, quantitative and qualitative differences in pattern of loudness change were found as a function of power change direction. With identical patterns of loudness change, only quantitative differences were found across stimulus type. In Experiment 2, Points of Subjective loudness Equality (PSE) provided additional information about loudness judgments for the static and dynamic stimuli. Because the quantitative differences across stimulus type exceed the magnitude that could be expected based upon temporal integration by the auditory system, other factors need to be, and are, considered.
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