Adaptation of Loudness to Monaural Stimulation

Simultaneous dichotic loudness balance (SDLB): Why loudness “fatigues” with two ears but not with one

“…Mirabella et al repeated the experiment, using 1-kHz tones, and found a compensatory increase of as much as 10 dB for stimuli of 40 dB SPL, but a compensatory decrease of 5 dB for 80 dB SPL stimuli, and a drop and subsequent rise for 70 dB SPL stimuli. Mirabella et al (1967) were (not surprisingly) suspicious of these inconsistencies. Hence, they introduced systematic fluctuations into the intensity of a 40 dB SPL, 1-kHz tone.…”

“…This may seem profound, but it is small compared to the Bfatigue^that Small and Minifie found when contralateral stimuli were not continuous: approximately 25 dB. According to the model, there should have been no Bfatigue^; but the 9 dB found by Small and Minifie mimics the amount of attentional drift found by Mirabella et al (1967). Indeed, there is a remarkable degree of possible error in loudness-matching of the two ears.…”

“…[18] D'Alessandro & Norwich, 2009, Table 2 for later studies of monaural loudness, as follows. Mirabella et al (1967) cited Harris and Pikler, and noted that if hearing adapted to monaural stimuli, the listener (if allowed) would increase the stimulus intensity to compensate. And, for 3.5-kHz tones and broadband noises, listeners actually compensated by raising the intensity of a 70 dB SPL stimulus by as much as 5 dB.…”

“…Indeed, the original interpretation of SDLB data (Egan, 1955b;Hood, 1950), namely that loudness adapts monaurally, is still taken as fact by many authors (e.g., Arieh & Marks, 2011;D'Alessandro & Norwich, 2009;Gygi & Shafiro, 2011;Jones, Weiler, Warm, Dember, & Sandman, 2003;Ortiz de Gortari & Griffiths, 2014;Pike, 2015;Tang, Liu, & Zeng, 2006). There has, however, been a slow but steady accumulation of reservations about the original interpretation (amongst others, Bocca & Pestalozza, 1959;Dirks, Morgan, & Bray, 1974;Mirabella, Taub, & Teichner, 1967;Thwing, 1956; and the work of Scharf and colleagues, reviewed in Meunier, 2013). All of this will be described below.…”

Influence of duty cycle and off time of comparison-tone pulse trains on the measurement of perstimulatory loudness adaptation

“…under Project 20·69. experimenters have attempted to eliminate these binaural cues. either (1) by stimulating the ear monaurally and asking a listener either to adjust the intensity of the tone to maintain a constant loudness or to judge periodically whether or not its loudness had changed (Mirabella. Taub.…”