Temporal Integration

The impression of loudess is not instant--it takes time to determine loudness of a sound.

Temporal Integration: the threshold for detecting a signal depends on duration (see Moore):

• durations $>$ 500 ms, the sound intensity at threshold is roughly independent of duration.
• durations $<$ 200 ms, the threshold increases as duration decreases.
• threshold for sinusoidal signals in quiet or in background noise decrease by approx. 3 dB per doubling in duration between about 10 and 200 ms.
• Auditory Demo demonstrates effect of duration on perceived loudness.
  • noise bursts having durations of 1000, 300, 100, 30, 10, 3, and 1 ms are presented at 8 decreasing levels (steps);
  • theory suggest that more steps should be heard with longer duration noise bursts