Springer Handbook of Auditory Research

Springer Handbook of Auditory Research Series Editors: Richard R. Fay and Arthur N. Popper For other titles published in this series, go to <a href="/goto?url=http://www.springer.com/series/2506" target="_blank">www.springer.com/series/2506 </a>wwww Mary Florentine • Arthur N. Popper Richard R. Fay Editors Loudness with 75 Illustrations Editors <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">Mary Florentine </li><li style="flex:1">Richard R. Fay </li></ul>Department of Psychology Loyola University Chicago Chicago, IL Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology with joint appointment in Department of Electrical and Computer <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">Engineering </li><li style="flex:1">USA </li></ul>Northeastern University Boston, MA 02115 <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a> USA <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Arthur N. Popper Department of Biology University of Maryland College Park, MD USA <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a><ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">ISBN 978-1-4419-6711-4 </li><li style="flex:1">e-ISBN 978-1-4419-6712-1 </li></ul>DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6712-1 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2010938801 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Cover Art: Estimate of loudness as a function of level derived from chirp-evoked otoacoustic emissions by Luke Shaheen and Michael Epstein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) In Memoriam and Honor Søren Buus (January 29, 1951–April 29, 2004) (Søren Buus’s obituary was published by Scharf, B. and Florentine, M. in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2005, 117, p. 1685.) wwww Series Preface Springer Handbook of Auditory Research The Springer Handbook of Auditory Research presents a series of comprehensive and synthetic reviews of the fundamental topics in modern auditory research. The volumes are aimed at all individuals with interests in hearing research including advanced graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and clinical investigators. The volumes are intended to introduce new investigators to important aspects of hearing science and to help established investigators to better understand the fundamental theories and data in fields of hearing that they may not normally follow closely. Each volume presents a particular topic comprehensively, and each serves as a synthetic overview and guide to the literature. As such, the chapters present neither exhaustive data reviews nor original research that has not yet appeared in peerreviewed journals. The volumes focus on topics that have developed a solid data and conceptual foundation, rather than on those for which a literature is only beginning to develop. New research areas will be covered on a timely basis in the series as they begin to mature. Each volume in the series consists of a few substantial chapters on a particular topic. In some cases, the topics will be ones of traditional interest for which there is a substantial body of data and theory, such as auditory neuroanatomy (Vol. 1) and neurophysiology (Vol. 2). Other volumes in the series deal with topics that have begun to mature more recently, such as development, plasticity, and computational models of neural processing. In many cases, the series editors are joined by a coeditor having special expertise in the topic of the volume. Richard R. Fay, Chicago, IL Arthur N. Popper, College Park, MD vii wwww Volume Preface The topic of loudness is of considerable concern, both in and outside of research laboratories. Most people have developed an opinion about some aspect of loudness, and many complain about the loudness of background sounds in their daily environments and their impacts on quality of life. Moreover, such sounds interfere with the ability to hear useful sounds, and such masking can be especially problematic for people with hearing losses, children, older adults, and nonnative speakers of a language. At the same time, not all loud sounds are undesirable. Some loud sounds are important for human well-being, such as warning signals, whereas other loud sounds, such as music, can be pleasurable. In fact, loudness is essential for enjoying the dynamics of music. Thus, loudness is a pervasive and complex issue, and one that needs to be examined from a wide range of perspectives, and that is the purpose of this volume. Research in loudness has been performed in many countries, and this volume is an international endeavor with authors from Europe, Japan, and the United States, making the volume an attempt to provide a global network of information about loudness. The editors are very pleased to be able to bring together information on many aspects of loudness in this one volume, as well as to highlight approaches from many different perspectives. The overall stage for understanding the issues of loudness is set up in Chapter 1 by Florentine, who defines loudness and provides an overview of the many factors that influence loudness, Chapter 1 also addresses how language and culture may influence loudness, and concludes with a summary of current knowledge of the physiological mechanisms involved in loudness. Chapters 2 and 3 cover issues related to the measurement of loudness. Marks and Florentine, in Chapter 2, discuss the theoretical, empirical, and practical constraints on loudness measurement. The chapter starts with a brief history of loudness measurement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and ends with contemporary methods of measurements. Of course, measures of loudness are also influenced by the context in which sounds are heard. In Chapter 3, Arieh and Marks discuss the ways in which context affects loudness and loudness judgments. In Chapter 4, Epstein reviews two issues related to responses to loudness: physiological effects of loud sounds, and perceptual and physiological data that correlate with loudness. Loudness in the laboratory is ix <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">x</li><li style="flex:1">Volume Preface </li></ul>discussed in Chapters 5 and 6 using a traditional, but artificial, classification to divide the subject matter. Jesteadt and Leibold address the loudness of steady-state sounds in Chapter 5. Kuwano and Namba examine the loudness of nonsteady-state (time-varying) sounds in Chapter 6. The bridge between loudness in the laboratory and daily environments begins in Chapter 7 and is expanded upon in Chapter 8. In Chapter 7, Sivonen and Ellermeir review studies on binaural loudness that have used different modes of stimulus presentation: headphones and free, diffuse, and directional sound fields. They show how mode of presentation affects the measurement of binaural loudness. In Chapter 8, Fastl and Florentine cover how loudness is related to annoyance, music, multisensory (audio-visual and audio-tactile) interactions, and the environmental context in which sounds are heard. They also discuss issues related to setting sound levels to optimal loudness for large groups of people. The topic of loudness is especially important for the one out of ten people who have a hearing loss and for those doing work with some aspect of aural rehabilitation. Knowledge of loudness in hearing loss is also important for anyone trying to understand normal hearing, because it puts constraints on theories of loudness. In Chapter 9, Smeds and Leijon summarize current thinking on the formation of loudness as it relates to different types of hearing loss and they describe strategies used to compensate for altered loudness. The volume ends in Chapter 10 with an introduction to models of loudness by Marozeau. As with most volumes in the Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, chapters often build upon material discussed in earlier volumes. In particular, generally related material can be found in Volumes 3 (Human Psychophysics), 6 (Auditory Computation), 18 (Speech Processing in the Auditory System), and 29 (Auditory Perception of Sound Sources). The editors express their appreciation to a number of colleagues and friends, including the authors of the chapters, who assisted in review of one or more of the chapters. We are grateful to William J. Cavanaugh, Leo Beranek, Brian Fligor, Julia B. Florentine, Michael G. Heinz, Sharon Kujawa, Andrzej Miśkiewicz, Brian C. J. Moore, Andrew Oxenham, Torben Poulsen, Bertram Scharf, and the students of the 2009 Loudness Seminar at Northeastern University. Mary Florentine, Boston, MA Arthur N. Popper, College Park, MD Richard R. Fay, Chicago, IL Contents 12Loudness .................................................................................................... Mary Florentine 1Measurement of Loudness, Part I: Methods, Problems, and Pitfalls.............................................................. 17 Lawrence E. Marks and Mary Florentine <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">3</li><li style="flex:1">Measurement of Loudness, Part II: </li></ul>Context Effects .......................................................................................... 57 Yoav Arieh and Lawrence E. Marks 45Correlates of Loudness............................................................................. 89 Michael J. Epstein Loudness in the Laboratory, Part I: Steady-State Sounds.................................................................................. 109 Walt Jesteadt and Lori J. Leibold <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">6</li><li style="flex:1">Loudness in the Laboratory, Part II: </li></ul>Non-Steady-State Sounds......................................................................... 145 Sonoko Kuwano and Seiichiro Namba 78Binaural Loudness .................................................................................... 169 Ville Pekka Sivonen and Wolfgang Ellermeier Loudness in Daily Environments............................................................. 199 Hugo Fastl and Mary Florentine xi <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">xii </li><li style="flex:1">Contents </li></ul>9Loudness and Hearing Loss..................................................................... 223 Karolina Smeds and Arne Leijon 10 Models of Loudness................................................................................... 261 Jeremy Marozeau Index................................................................................................................. 285 Contributors Yoav Arieh Department of Psychology, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Wolfgang Ellermeier Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Darmstadt, D-64283, Darmstadt, Germany <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Michael J. Epstein Auditory Modeling and Processing Laboratory, Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, The Communications and Digital Signal Processing Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Hugo Fastl Department of Technical Acoustics, AG Technische Akustik, MMK, Technische Universität München, 80333 München, Germany <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Mary Florentine Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology with joint appointment in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Walt Jesteadt Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE 68131, USA <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Sonoko Kuwano Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0083, Japan <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>xiii <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">xiv </li><li style="flex:1">Contributors </li></ul>Lori J. Leibold Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, The University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Arne Leijon KTH – School of Electrical Engineering, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Lawrence E. Marks John B. Pierce Laboratory, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University, School of Medicine, and Department of Psychology, Yale University New Haven, CT 06519, USA <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Jeremy Marozeau The Bionic Ear Institute, East Melbourne, VIC 3002, Australia <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Seiichiro Namba Osaka University, 14-8-513, Aomadani-Higashi 1 chome, Minoo, Osaka, Japan <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Ville Pekka Sivonen Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics, Aalto University School of Science and Technology, Otakaari 5 A, 02150 Espoo, Finland ville.sivonen@tkk.ﬁ Karolina Smeds ORCA Europe, Widex A/S, Maria Bangata 4, 118 63 Stockholm, Sweden <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected] </a>Chapter 1 Loudness Mary Florentine 1.1 Why Learn About Loudness? The topic of loudness is no longer something esoteric, discussed only in research laboratories and psychoacoustics lectures. It is mainstream in social conversation, and most people have developed an opinion about some aspect of loudness. Our daily environments are too loud and people are taking notice. In their book, One Square Inch of Silence, Hempton and Grossmann (<a href="#28_0">2009</a>) document the lack of quiet places. The fact that a book about this topic can be published by Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster, and appear on bookshelves – from Barnes and Noble to WalMart and Sam’s Club – indicates that problems associated with loud sounds strike a resonant chord with a large segment of the population. Loud sounds intrude on our enjoyment of life and affect our performance; loud background sounds interfere with our ability to hear sounds we want to hear and can create communication problems for everyone, especially those with hearing losses (Chap. 9), children (Nelson et al. <a href="#28_1">2002</a>), older adults (Kim et al. <a href="#28_2">2006</a>), and non-native speakers of a language (e.g., Mayo et al. <a href="#28_3">1997</a>; Lecumberri and Cooke <a href="#28_4">2006</a>; Van Engen and Bradlow <a href="#29_0">2007</a>). These combined groups add up to be a significant portion of the overall population. News reports and media broadcasts in many countries have alerted the general population to the potential risk of hearing loss caused by exposure to high levels of sound, especially music. Many parents are especially concerned about the musiclistening behaviors of their children. In fact, recommendations to prevent noiseinduced hearing loss are often not heeded, although they are simple to understand <a href="#27_0">(Florentine </a><a href="#27_0">1990</a>). Research compiled during the past two decades is not unambiguous regarding the limits of toxic exposure levels. For example, sound exposures for musicians in symphony orchestras show that in many cases the sound exposure exceeds an 8-h limit of 85 dBA (Royster et al. <a href="#29_1">1991</a>), but measurements of hearing M. Florentine(*) Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology with joint appointment in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA e-mail: [email protected] <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">M. Florentine et al. (eds.), Loudness, Springer Handbook of Auditory Research 37, </li><li style="flex:1">1</li></ul>DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6712-1_1, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">2</li><li style="flex:1">M. Florentine </li></ul>thresholds in sound-exposed musicians do not indicate much change – although they often have tinnitus and may have more difficulty with complex auditory processing. Likewise, Axelsson et al. (<a href="#27_1">1995</a>) found surprisingly little change in the hearing thresholds of rock musicians tested in the beginning of their careers and tested after 20 years of performing. Hearing thresholds, however, may be a poor way to assess damage to hearing because they are quite insensitive to neural degeneration (Kujawa and Liberman <a href="#28_5">2009</a>). Effective hearing in daily life, such as the ability to hear speech in background noise, requires more physiological processing than is needed to simply detect the presence of a sound. It is noteworthy that the sound exposure limit of 85 dBA is based primarily on data collected from white adult males, who were exposed to industrial noise (ISO <a href="#28_6">1999 </a><a href="#28_6">1990</a>); recommendations for children exposed to music are estimations. Some data suggest that previous exposure to high-level noise has a deleterious effect on the progression of age-related hearing loss (Gates et al. <a href="#27_2">2000</a>; Kujawa and Liberman <a href="#28_7">2006</a>). In other words, ears with noise damage may age differently from those without noise damage. Although there is evidence that some people may be more susceptible to noise-induced hearing loss than others, there are currently no standardized tests that can identify those who may be at greater risk. Therefore, it is best to use caution around loud sounds (for iPod recommendations and other information, see Chap. 8). Although there is some debate on the limits of toxic noise exposure, there is clear consensus among scientists that very high-level sounds can cause hearing loss and impact our general physical and psychological wellness (see Chap. 4). Some loud sounds have more physical and psychological impact than others, and the magnitude of noxious sounds in our daily environments are too loud in many locations. The background sounds of our daily lives – the soundscapes – have changed (Schafer <a href="#29_2">1977</a>). Although there have always been loud sounds in nature such as waterfalls and thunder, people could choose not to live close to waterfalls; thunder was not a daily experience. Humans designed bullhorns for use as warning signals and long-distance communication devices. Although people experienced loud sounds, most people agree that the soundscapes of our daily environments are much louder and more intrusive today than in the past. Soundscapes in entire areas of countries can change rather quickly. For example, soundscapes took on a dramatic change in loudness in early twentieth century America with the onset of modern technology (Thompson <a href="#29_3">2002</a>). Loudness correlates highly with the degree of annoyance of community noises (Berglund et al. <a href="#27_3">1976</a>). The problem of intrusively loud soundscapes is not confined to any one country; it is a global issue. It is not confined to spaces outside dwelling places. Sounds inside homes are often too loud. In fact, at the time of this writing the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act is being discussed in the U.S. House of Representatives. The CALM Act addresses widespread consumer complaints regarding the abrupt loudness of television advertisements. The Act would enable the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to monitor the levels of advertisements in television programming to ensure that the loudness levels of commercial breaks are consistent with those of the programming that it brackets. National standards on the loudness of commercials have already been adopted in Australia, Brazil, France, Israel, Russia, and the United Kingdom. <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">1</li><li style="flex:1">Loudness </li><li style="flex:1">3</li></ul>Most loud sounds are unnecessary and avoidable. Modern technology exists that can reduce the level of sounds. There are a number of ways to quiet loud sounds that are not difficult to implement, but they require awareness, effort, some financial resources, and in some cases political action. Even when regulations to control unreasonably loud sounds are enforced, technological knowledge has been used to get around the regulations. For example, a loudness maximizer has been developed to increase loudness of media broadcasts and commercials to grab the attention of potential customers, while staying within legal sound-level limits (see Chap. 8). This device was developed with knowledge of how we perceive loudness; this same knowledge can be used to set more effective sound-emission limits and is found within the chapters of this book. Although many loud sounds should be eliminated, some loud sounds are important, useful, and even desirable. Warning signals are essential for our safety. Some loud sounds allow us to experience the dynamics of music and speech. To eliminate loud, unwanted sounds and keep desired sounds optimally loud requires an understanding of the many factors that influence the perception of loudness. Another important reason to learn about loudness is to aid in the rehabilitation of people with hearing losses. According to the National Institutes of Deafness and Communication Disorders, one out of ten people have a hearing loss, and many people will develop a hearing loss as they age. The most common treatment for hearing loss is hearing aids. Kochkin’s survey (2005) of 1,500 hearing-aid users indicates that only 60% of them reported being satisfied when asked about comfort with loud sounds. This chapter provides an overview of the many factors that influence loudness and they are described in greater detail in subsequent chapters. It also includes topics that have not been covered elsewhere in this book. <a href="#17_0">Section 1.2 </a>includes the definition and the meaning of loudness, and gives an overview of the complex nature of loudness. It also specifies correct terminology and cautions about the use of incorrect and misleading terminology. The third section addresses how language and culture influence judgments of loudness. It describes how the connotative meaning of a percept, such as loudness, can be obtained and how it can differ among languages, even though the dictionary definitions indicate the same meaning. It also describes some early international collaboration undertaken to understand loudness and other aspects of perception that are related to it. The fourth section describes the current state of knowledge regarding loudness and points toward new areas of investigation.

Springer Handbook of Auditory Research

Details

Download

Copyright

We respect the copyrights and intellectual property rights of all users. All uploaded documents are either original works of the uploader or authorized works of the rightful owners.

Support