Ponsot Emmanuel, Susini Patrick, Meunier Sabine
STMS Laboratory (IRCAM, CNRS, UPMC), 1 place Igor Stravinsky, 75004, Paris, France,
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2015 Apr;77(3):907-20. doi: 10.3758/s13414-014-0824-y.
Tones rising in intensity over a few seconds are perceived as louder than symmetrical tones falling in intensity. However, the causes for such perceptual asymmetry, as well as its magnitude and dependency on contextual and methodological factors remain unclear. In this paper, two psychophysical experiments were conducted to measure the magnitude of this asymmetry for 2-s, 15-dB intensity-varying tones in different conditions. In the first experiment, participants assessed the global loudness of rising- and falling-intensity sounds with an absolute magnitude estimation procedure (AME); in the second experiment, they compared sounds relatively in an adaptive, two-interval, two-alternative forced-choice task (2I-2AFC). In both experiments, the region of intensity change, the design of experimental blocks, and the type of comparison stimulus were systematically manipulated to test for contextual and methodological factors. Remarkably, the asymmetry was virtually unaffected by the different contexts of presentation and similar results with 2I-2AFC and AME measurements were obtained. In addition, the size of the effect was comparable over all but the highest intensity regions (80-90 dB SPL), at which it was significantly smaller. All together, these results indicate that the loudness asymmetry is preserved under different measurement methods and contexts, and suggest that the underlying mechanism is strong and robust. In short, falling tones have to be about 4 dB higher in level than symmetrically rising tones in order to be perceived with the same global loudness, a finding that is still not predicted by current loudness models.
在几秒钟内强度逐渐增加的音调比强度逐渐降低的对称音调听起来更响亮。然而，这种感知不对称的原因，以及其大小和对上下文及方法学因素的依赖性仍不清楚。在本文中，进行了两项心理物理学实验，以测量在不同条件下2秒、15分贝强度变化音调的这种不对称程度。在第一个实验中，参与者使用绝对大小估计程序（AME）评估强度上升和下降声音的整体响度；在第二个实验中，他们在自适应的双间隔、双替代强制选择任务（2I-2AFC）中对声音进行相对比较。在两个实验中，系统地操纵强度变化区域、实验块设计和比较刺激类型，以测试上下文和方法学因素。值得注意的是，这种不对称几乎不受不同呈现上下文的影响，并且在2I-2AFC和AME测量中获得了相似的结果。此外，除了最高强度区域（80-90 dB SPL）外，效应大小在所有区域都相当，在该区域效应明显较小。总之，这些结果表明响度不对称在不同的测量方法和上下文中都得以保留，并表明其潜在机制强大且稳健。简而言之，下降音调的强度必须比对称上升音调高约4分贝，才能被感知为具有相同 的整体响度，这一发现目前的响度模型仍无法预测。
