The Noisiness of Impulsive Sounds

Abstract

Four experiments were performed in an anechoic chamber to investigate the effects of duration, intersignal interval, repetition, and frequency on the perceived noisiness of impulsive signals. All data were collected by an adaptive psychophysical procedure called Parameter Estimation by Sequential Testing (PEST). The major conclusions were that (1) the phase spectrum of an impulsive signal is irrelevant to its perceived noisiness, and (2) the ear's sensitivity to noisiness of impulsive signals resembles an energy summation process; i.e., it appears to integrate total acoustic power of noise events to at least 100 sec.