The Dependence of Frequency Change Perception on the Acoustics of a Listening Environment and Its Implication for the Evaluation of Room Acoustics

  • Jeong, Dae-Up (Research staff, Dept. of Architectural Engineering, Yonsei University)
  • Published : 1999.12.01

Abstract

Psychophysical approaches to the room acoustics have been made in number of researches. The present study is looking at whether the listener's perception of frequency change in rooms are dependent on the acoustics of a listening environment. P(C)s for frequency change in short tones were measured in different listening conditions. Two experiments were carried out to investigate the influence of room acoustics on the listener's perception of frequency change, and its implication for evaluating the acoustics of listening environments were examined and discussed. It was found that the temporal and spectral contents of reflections from room surfaces might be an important factor which influenced the listener's perception of frequency change in a reverberant sound field. This implicates that psychophysical approach by measuring listener's frequency change perception might be an useful tool for evaluating room acoustics. However, cares should be taken, since some individual differences were found to exist with respect to the direction of frequency change.

Keywords

References

  1. Archives of Acoustics v.17 Timbre, tone colour, and sound quality : concepts and definitions Letowski,T.
  2. Acoustical Terminology S1, 1-1960 American Standards Association
  3. Acustica v.19 Thresholds of perception of repetition pitch. Conclusions concerning coloration in room acoustics and correlation in the hearing organ Bilsen,F.A.
  4. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. v.47 Some parameters influencing the perceptibility of pitch Bilsen,F.A.;Ritsma,R.J.
  5. J. Sound Vib. v.3 Recent work on the effects of reflections in concert halls and music studios Sommerville,C.L.S.;Gilford,N.F.;Negus,R.D.M.
  6. J. Exp. Psychol. v.52 Tempo of frequency changes as a cue for distinguishing classes of speech sounds Lieberman,A.M.;Delattre,P.C.;Gerstman,L.J.;Cooper,F.S.
  7. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. v.41 Analysis of musical instrument tones Freedman,M.D.
  8. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. v.42 Physical correlates of brass instrument tones Luce,D.;Clark,M.
  9. Proceedings of 13th ICA Physical and psychoacoustic evaluation of FM signals propagating in a room Ozimek,E.
  10. Acta Acustica v.82 AM and FM difference limens and their reference to amplitude-frequency changes of a sound in a room Ozimek,E.;Sek,A.
  11. Applied Acoustics v.26 Deformation of frequency modulated(FM) signals propagating in a room Ozimek,E.;Rutkowski,L.
  12. Archives of Acoustics v.20 no.2 Linear and jump frequency changes of a signal in a room Rutkowski,L.;Ozimek,E.
  13. Acta Acustica v.83 Linear and sinusoidal frequency changes of a signal in a room Rutkowski,L.;Ozimek,E.
  14. Applied Acoustics Frequency perception as a measure of room acoustic quality Jeong,D.U.;Fricke,F.R.
  15. Frequency analysis and periodicity detection in hearing Masking and psychological excitation as consequences of the ear's frequency analysis Zwicker,E.;Plomp,R.(ed.);Smoorenburg,G.F.(ed.)
  16. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. v.39 Frequency discrimination of random amplitude tones Henning,G.B.
  17. Frequency selectivity in hearing The role of frequency selectivity in the perception of loudness, pitch and time Moore,B.C.J.;Glasberg,B.R.;Moore,B.C.J.(ed.)
  18. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. v.86 Mechanisms underlying the frequency discrimination of pulsed tones and the detection of frequency modulation Moore,B.C.J.;Glasberg,B.R.
  19. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. v.85 A re-examination of the frequency discrimination of random amplitude tones. and a test of Henning's modified energy-detector model Emmerich,D.S.;Ellermeier,W.;Butensky,B.
  20. Am J. Psychol. v.84 Pitch as a medium : a new approach to psychophysical scaling Attneave,F.;Olson,R.K.
  21. An introduction to the psycholgy of hearing Moore,B.C.J.
  22. Detection Theory : A user's guide Macmillan,N.A.;Creelman,C.D.
  23. Signal detection theory and psychophysics Green,D.M.;Swets,J.A.
  24. J. Acoust. Soc. Am v.53 Auditory detection of frequency transition Tsumura,T.;Sone,T.;Nimura,T.
  25. Percept & Psychophysics v.37 Identification and discrimination of sweep tones Schouten,M.E.H.
  26. Concert hall acoustics Ando,Y.
  27. Behavioral Research Methods, Instruments & Computers v.25 PsyScope : A new graphic interactive environment for designing psychology experiments Cohen,J.D.;MacWhinney,B.;Flatt,M.;Provost,J.
  28. Psycho-physical methods in modern Psychoacoustics, in Foundations of modern auditory theory Robinson,D.E.;Watson,C.S.;Tobias,J.V.(ed.)
  29. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. v.66 Evidence for direction-specific channels in the processing of frequency modulation Gardner,R.B.;Wilson,J.P.
  30. J. coust. Soc. Am. v.84 Detection of linear frequency glides as a function of frequency and duration Dooley, Gary J.;Moore,B.C.J.
  31. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. v.84 Duration discrimination of steady and gliding tones : A new method for estimating sensitivity to rate of change Dooley,G.J.;Moore,B.C.J.
  32. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. v.55 Pitch, consonance and harmony Terhardt,E.
  33. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. v.79 Critical modulation frequency based on detection of AM versus FM tones Schorer,E.
  34. Acustica v.74 On the audibility of phase distortions in rooms and its significance for sound reproduction and digital simulation in room acoustics Kuttruff,H.
  35. Archives of Acoustics v.21 Room response to frequency change and its relation to the pitch change Rutkowski,L.