Prior to 1924: Fechner's Law. sensation increases as the logarithm of the stimulus. Relation of loudness to intensity. Equal loudness contours. Loudness ...
A History of Loudness 1900 to 1950 Stephen T. Neely
Overview Prior to 1924: Fechner’s Law sensation increases as the logarithm of the stimulus Relation
of loudness to intensity Equal loudness contours Loudness scaling properties
1924, Physical Review Fletcher
and Steinberg (Bell Labs) “Dependence of loudness of a complex sound upon the energy in various frequency regions of the sound” Summation of the cube root of energy
1927, Physical Review Kingsbury
(Bell Labs)
◦ “A direct comparison of the loudness of pure tones” ◦ 60 – 4000 Hz, 22 subjects ◦ Equal loudness contours ◦ Low-frequency loudness increases more rapidly than high frequency loudness
1927 – Equal loudness
1932, JASA Ham
and Parkinson (New York University)
◦ “Loudness and intensity relations” ◦ Power-law: y = (E2/E1)0.331 y=percent of loudness E=noise energy
◦ Fits data better than Fechner’s law
1933, JASA Riesz
(Bell Labs)
◦ “Relationship between loudness and the minimum perceptual increment of intensity” ◦ Inexperienced observers, when asked to select a sound 1/nth as loud, selected a level closely corresponding to 1/nth the number of distinguishable steps above threshold.
1933, JASA Lifshitz
(Moscow)
◦ “Integral laws of sound perception relating loudness and apparent duration of sound impulses” ◦ The loudness of the definite impulse is determined by the log of the integral of the sound intensity.
1933, JASA Geiger
and Firestone (Univ. of Michigan)
◦ “Estimation of fractional loudness” ◦ Notes “considerable divergence” in results obtained by different investigators. ◦ Loudness judgments are made upon the basis of actual sensation.
1933, JASA Fletcher
and Munson (Bell Labs)
◦ “Loudness definition, measurement, and calculation” ◦ Loudness units (like sones) ◦ Loudness satisfies additivity for widely-spaced tones ◦ Masking occurs for closely-spaced tones
Fletcher and Munson (1933)
Loudness growth estimates (over wide range of tone frequencies and intensities) derived from matching loudness of multi-tone stimuli
1936, Psychological Review S.
S. Stevens (Harvard)
◦ “A scale for the measurement of a psychological magnitude: loudness” ◦ Defined sones: the unit of the scale is the loudness of a 1000 Hz tone 40 dB above threshold heard with both ears ◦ Usual laws of addition are valid ◦ Sones similar to Fletcher loudness units: 1 sone = 1000 LU
1937, JASA Knauss
(Ohio State University)
◦ “An empirical formula for the loudness of a 1000-cycle tone” ◦ Modified power law: 𝐼𝐼 𝐿𝐿 = 10−5⁄2 𝐼𝐼 + 1 2⁄3
1947-50, JASA Tone-duration
effect on loudness
◦ Munson (1947), Garner (1948; 1949)
Noise-duration ◦ G. Miller (1948)
Masking
effect on loudness
patterns
◦ Munson and Gardner (1950), Egan and Hake (1950)
American contributors to loudness research Bell Telephone Laboratories Harvard University New York University University of Michigan Ohio State University Johns-Hopkins University
Foreign contributors to loudness research Samuel
Lifshitz
◦ Architectural Institute of Moscow, USSR
B.G.
Churcher
◦ Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company, England
Key concepts: 1900-1950 Fletcher
(1933)
Stevens
(1936)
◦ Additivity of loudness scale ◦ Masking reduces additivity ◦ Scaling based on judgments of equal loudness ◦ Failure of Fechner’s law ◦ Definition of sones ◦ Scaling based on judgments of fractional loudness
References
Fletcher, H., & Steinberg, J. C. (1924). The dependence of the loudness of a complex sound upon the energy in the various frequency regions of the sound. Physical Review, 24(3), 306. [Bell Telephone Laboratories] Kingsbury, B. A. (1927). A direct comparison of the loudness of pure tones. Physical Review, 29(4), 588. [Bell Telephone Laboratories] Ham, L. B., & Parkinson, J. S. (1932). Loudness and intensity relations. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 3(4), 511-534. [New York University] Laird, D. A., Taylor, E., & Wille Jr, H. H. (1932). The apparent reduction of loudness. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 3(3), 393-401. [Colgate University] Riesz, R. R. (1933). The relationship between loudness and the minimum perceptible increment of intensity. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 4(3), 211-216. [Bell Telephone Laboratories] Lifshitz, S. (1933). Two integral laws of sound perception relating loudness and apparent duration of sound impulses. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 5(1), 31-33. [Architectural Institute of Moscow] Geiger, P. H., & Firestone, F. A. (1933). The estimation of fractional loudness. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 5(1), 25-30. [University of Michigan] Fletcher, H., & Munson, W. A. (1933). Loudness, Its Definition, Measurement and Calculation. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 5(2), 82-108. [Bell Telephone Laboratories] Churcher, B. G. (1935). A loudness scale for industrial noise measurements. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 6(4), 216-225. [Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company, England] Stevens, S. S., & Davis, H. (1936). Psychophysiological acoustics: pitch and loudness. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 8(1), 1-13. [Harvard University] Steinberg, J. C., & Munson, W. A. (1936). Deviations in the loudness judgments of 100 people. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 8(2), 71-80. [Bell Telephone Laboratories] Stevens, S. S. (1936). A scale for the measurement of a psychological magnitude: loudness. Psychological Review, 43(5), 405. [Harvard University] Knauss, H. P. (1937). An Empirical Formula for the Loudness of a 1000‐Cycle Tone. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 9(1), 45-46. [Ohio State University] Munson, W. A. (1947). The growth of auditory sensation. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 19(4), 584591. [Bell Telephone Laboratories] Miller, G. A. (1948). The perception of short bursts of noise. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 20(2), 160-170. [Harvard University] Garner, W. R. (1949). The loudness and loudness matching of short tones. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 21(4), 398-403. [Johns Hopkins University] Munson, W. A., & Gardner, M. B. (1950). Loudness patterns—a new approach. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 22(2), 177-190. [Bell Telephone Laboratories] Egan, J. P., & Hake, H. W. (1950). On the masking pattern of a simple auditory stimulus. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 22(5), 622-630.
