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Loudness scaling in rats and chinchillas
Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology
|August 1, 1980
Summary
This study shows that loudness perception in chinchillas and rats follows a power function, similar to humans. This indicates consistent loudness growth across species, supporting Stevens
Area of Science:
- Psychoacoustics
- Animal Behavior
Background:
- Understanding auditory perception in animals is crucial for comparative psychology.
- Stevens' power law is a prominent model for human loudness perception.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether loudness perception in chinchillas and rats aligns with Stevens' power law.
- To determine the exponent of the power function for loudness growth in these species.
Main Methods:
- Chinchillas and rats were trained on operant discriminations using different sound pressure levels of a 4-kHz tone.
- Stimulus pairs varied in decibel separation but maintained similar loudness-unit differences.
- Performance was assessed at high, medium, and low levels of discriminability.
Main Results:
- Animals trained on stimuli with equal loudness-unit differences showed equivalent performance across discriminability levels.
- This suggests that loudness perception is consistently scaled in these species.
Conclusions:
- Loudness growth in chinchillas and rats is well-described by a power function, supporting Stevens' law.
- The exponent for chinchillas was found to be 0.25, and for rats, it was 0.35.