Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 9, 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
Level dominance for the detection of changes in level distribution in sound streams
Virginia M Richards1, Yi Shen, Charles Chubb
1Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, California 92697-5100, USA. v.m.richards@uci.edu
Abstract:
Sound streams were generated by randomly choosing the levels of tone pips from two different distributions, A and B. Of the 18 tone pips, the first nine were drawn from distribution A and the second nine from distribution B, or the opposite. The listeners' task was to indicate order, A-B or B-A. In two conditions the A and B distributions differed in mean (condition 1) or variance (condition 2). In contrast to an ideal observer, listeners' strategies were consistent across the two conditions. Analyses suggest that listeners relied primarily on the more intense tone pips in making their decisions.
Related Concept Videos
Sound Intensity Level
The human ear can perceive an extensive range of sound intensity, necessitating the use of the logarithmic scale to define a physical quantity—the intensity level. It is a ratio of two intensities and hence a...
Difference from Background: Limit of Detection
The LOD indicates the presence or absence...
Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by identifying...
Differential Leveling
Doppler Effect - II
Intensity and Pressure of Sound Waves
Unlike the time average of a sinusoidal term, which is zero since it is positive and...
