A new method of measurement of most comfortable loudness.
A new computer-assisted method for the measurement of most comfortable loudness (MCL) is presented, where not only MCL but also its reliability can be graphically displayed and measured. Two unique features concerning the reliability of MCL measurement are obtained in this method: sharpness and stability. Sharpness is defined by the rate of repeat selection of the same level as MCL, and stability is used to express the consistency of a subject's response during the experiment. A method of analyzing sharpness and stability was explained by showing two contrasting cases. Based on the graph configurations, the subjects were divided into two major categories, type A and type B, defined by sharpness of judgment. Type A subjects' judgments are sharper than those of type B. Decreasing the frequency increased the occurrence of type A subjects. Retest results revealed that this method has a high degree of reproducibility of MCL judgment, which supports the reliability of this method.
Hosoi
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Department of Otorhinolaryngology, School of Medicine, Kinki University, Osaka, Japan.
Murata
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Imaizumi
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001302:Audiometry, Speech / Q000295:instrumentation; D003196:Computer Graphics; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D008144:Loudness Perception; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013018:Sound Spectrography / Q000295:instrumentation*