Rate of Decay of Auditory Sensation

The rate of decay of auditory sensation was investigated by measuring the minimum silent interval that must be introduced between two noise pulses to be perceived. The value of this critical time Λt was determined for different intensity levels of both the first and the second pulse. It is shown that in this case the sensation level of the second pulse may be considered as a very good approximation of the level of auditory sensation after Λt, due to the first pulse. From the experiments, we may conclude (1) expressed in dB as a function of log t, the decay of sensation is represented by a straight line; (2) independent of the sensation level of the stimulating sound, the hearing threshold is reached at the same time of about 200–300 msec. These results are compared with other experiments and the differences are discussed.