Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 9, 2025
13:00
Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
Published on: January 23, 2017
10.0K
Temporal loudness weights: Primacy effects, loudness dominance and their interaction
Alexander Fischenich1, Jan Hots2, Jesko Verhey2
1Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
Plos One
|December 23, 2021
Summary
Temporal weighting in loudness judgments is influenced by sound onset (primacy effect) and level (loudness dominance). These effects interact differently depending on whether sound segments are contiguous or separated by gaps.
Area of Science:
- Auditory perception
- Psychoacoustics
- Signal processing
Background:
- Loudness perception exhibits non-uniform temporal weighting.
- A primacy effect gives more weight to the beginning of a sound.
- Loudness dominance assigns higher weights to louder temporal segments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the interplay between the primacy effect and loudness dominance.
- To examine how temporal gaps influence these effects.
- To explore the impact of amplification and attenuation on temporal weighting.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments used Gaussian wideband noise segments (100- or 475-ms) with varied levels.
- Segments were either contiguous or separated by 500-ms gaps.
- Specific temporal segments were amplified or attenuated to assess their impact.
Main Results:
- No primacy effect was observed for sounds with temporal gaps.
- Contiguous segments showed both primacy effect and loudness dominance effects.
- Effects of relative level were more pronounced for attenuation and contiguous sounds.
Conclusions:
- The presence of temporal gaps diminishes the primacy effect.
- Interactions between primacy and loudness dominance depend on amplification/attenuation and segment contiguity.
- Masking effects on auditory intensity resolution may explain some findings.
Related Concept Videos
01:21Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location
510
The human brain perceives pitch through two primary mechanisms reflected in place theory and frequency theory. Each mechanism describes how sound waves are interpreted as specific pitches by the brain, offering insights into the intricate processes of auditory perception.
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...
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...
510
00:53Sound Intensity Level
4.4K
Humans perceive sound by hearing. The human ear helps sound waves reach the brain, which then interprets the waves and creates the perception of hearing. The loudness of the environment in which a person is located determines whether they can distinguish between different sound sources.
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...
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...
4.4K
01:09First Impression
11
First impressions play a crucial role in social perception, shaping how individuals assess others in professional, academic, and interpersonal contexts. Psychological research highlights the significance of cognitive biases, such as the primacy and recency effects, which influence how people interpret and recall information.The Primacy Effect and Cognitive AnchoringThe primacy effect describes the tendency for initial information to impact judgment disproportionately. When individuals encounter...
11
00:58Sound Intensity
4.2K
The loudness of a sound source is related to how energetically the source is vibrating, consequently making the molecules of the propagation medium vibrate. To measure the loudness of a source, the physical quantity of interest is the intensity. This is defined as the energy emitted per unit of time per unit of area perpendicular to the sound wave's propagation direction. Since the total energy is greater if the source vibrates for a longer duration and over a larger area, dividing the...
4.2K
01:01Perception of Sound Waves
4.8K
The human ear is not equally sensitive to all frequencies in the audible range. It may perceive sound waves with the same pressure but different frequencies as having different loudness. Moreover, the perception of sound waves depends on the health of an individual's ears, which decays with age. The health of one's ears may also be affected by regular exposure to loud noises.
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same...
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same...
4.8K
01:05Intensity and Pressure of Sound Waves
1.3K
The intensity of sound waves can be related to displacement and pressure amplitudes by using their wave expressions and the definition of intensity. The critical step to achieve this is to write the power delivered by the particles on the wave as the product of force and velocity and simplify the force per unit area as the pressure. The velocity of the medium's particles can be derived from the displacement.
Unlike the time average of a sinusoidal term, which is zero since it is positive...
Unlike the time average of a sinusoidal term, which is zero since it is positive...
1.3K