Differences in child and adult loudness judgments of rock music

Abstract

The present study was concerned with the perceptual processing of complex auditory stimuli in ten children (M_ age=8.1) as compared to ten young adults (M_ age=19.3) and ten older adult subjects (M_ age=54.2). The auditory stimulus used was 10 s of rock music [Led Zeppelin, CD Recording No. 19127−2 (Atlantic Recording Group, New York 1969)]. All three groups provided numerical responses to nine intensity levels of the rock music stimulus (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 dB above threshold). Results showed that the children demonstrated a wider range of numerical responses than both adult groups. The range of mean numerical responses for the children was 0.54 to 54.24. For the young adults the range was 0.76 to 11.37, and for the older subjects it was 1.6 to 23.31. Results suggest that the children were not bound by the same set of rules as the adults in regard to magnitude estimation scaling of the loudness of the rock music stimulus. Their internal scaling mechanisms appeared to be more flexible and broader based than those of the adults who participated in this study.

Narrative Review of Loudness Perception Measures in Children

“…Studies reporting variability across children of similar ages show that this variability is substantial but similar to that which has been reported with adult listeners (Dorfman & Megling 1966; Bond & Stevens 1969; Teghtsoonian 1980; Collins & Gescheider 1989; Baruch et al 1993; Fucci et al 1999; Davidson et al 2000, 2009; Serpanos & Gravel 2000, 2004; Khalfa et al 2004; Serpanos 2004; Scollie et al 2010; Crukley & Scollie 2012, 2014; Wolfe et al 2015; Van Eeckhoutte et al 2020). Despite this across-child variability, children were highly consistent in their loudness growth reports across tests (O’Loughlin 1978; Collins & Gescheider 1989; Serpanos & Gravel 2000, 2004; Serpanos 2004; Wolfe et al 2015).…”

“…Existing literature overwhelmingly shows no significant developmental differences on measures of loudness growth (Dorfman & Megling 1966;Bond & Stevens 1969;O'Loughlin 1978;Teghtsoonian 1980;Collins & Gescheider 1989;Baruch et al 1993;Schneider & Cohen 1997;Fucci et al 1999;Serpanos & Gravel 2000, 2004Serpanos 2004;Scollie et al 2010;Schafer et al 2013). Note that the majority of studies comparing adults with children used magnitude estimation, magnitude production, or cross modality matching.…”