Contextual processing of multidimensional and unidimensional auditory stimuli

Journal/Book: J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1993; 19: 227-49.

Abstract: Stimulus context (the distribution of stimulus values) can strongly affect both perception and judgment. In 14 experiments, the method of magnitude estimation revealed 2 fundamentally different kinds of context effect in loudness. An assimilative effect dominated when stimuli varied unidimensionally (in intensity only). But a contrasting, or adaptation-like, effect dominated when stimuli varied multidimensionally (in frequency and intensity). In Experiment 15, direct loudness comparison revealed a potent, adaptational process specific to the signal frequency. Taken together, these and other results are compatible with the view that loudness perception and judgment reflect the net outcome of 2 different contextual processes: a relatively early (though probably not peripheral) process of perceptual adaptation and a later process of response-dependent assimilation.

Keyword(s): Adult ; Habituation Psychophysiology; Music ; Psychoacoustics Attention ; Loudness Perception; Perceptual Distortion; Pitch Perception Female; Human; Male; Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

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