Relationship of spectral noise levels to psychophysical scaling of vowel roughness.

Direct magnitude estimation (DME) and equal-appearing interval (EAI) ratings of perceived roughness and spectral noise level (SNL) measurements of isolated sustained vowel samples (/a/ and /i/) were obtained. The linear and curvilinear relationships between the resulting roughness ratings and SNL were then examined. In the present study, the comparison between the two models resulted in conflicting evidence regarding the model that best described the relationship between roughness ratings and SNL measurements. In all comparisons, however, a significant linear component was indicated. Additionally, when a significant curvilinear component was indicated, the difference between the lines and curves that were fit to the data was minimal. The present findings suggest, therefore, that a high degree of linearity exists between both DME and EAI roughness ratings and SNL.