Introduction to psychoacoustics and psychoacoustic tests, by Kristian Jambrosic (University of Zagreb)

DENORMS Action’s Training School “Experimental techniques for acoustic porous materials and metamaterials”, Le Mans, 4-6th December 2017

Website of DENORMS Action

Programme of the Training School

Lecturer: Kristian Jambrosic (University of Zagreb)

Abstract:

Psychoacoustics is defined as the study of sound perception and as such holds a quite unique position among different disciplines of acoustics. Instead of relying merely on objective measurements of sound quantities, it focuses on people and their (often individual) way of perceiving sound. This lecture will provide an overview of our hearing process. It will discuss principles of psychoacoustics and in particular typical psychoacoustic parameters, such as loudness, sharpness, roughness, fluctuation strength, that were created to provide a common method of predicting and comparing listeners responses to sound stimuli. Moreover, auditory tests and psychoacoustic measurements are often the only method of assessing our perception of any sound or noise (for example, how structures like Phononic Crystals are perceived when used as noise barriers). The build-up and conduction of psychoacoustic tests will be discussed and demonstrated using some auditory examples.