Reconsideration of Loudness Adaptation Free

Six S's were tested with three procedures. In all of the studies the adapting stimulus was a 1‐kHz tone delivered to the S's right ear. The comparison stimuli used during the various studies were, with respect to the adapting stimuli, either homophonic (same frequency, in phase), π (same frequency, 180° out of phase), or heterophonic (different frequency, 1.2 kHz). The results may be summarized as follows: (1) Auditory adaptation as measured with a homophonic simultaneous dichotic loudness‐balance (SDLB) procedure increased as a function of the adapting ear exposure duration. (2) With heterophonic and homophonic methods of delayed balance procedures, the loudness of the adapting stimulus did not decrease as a function of AE exposure. (3) The balance levels obtained during the homophonic and heterophonic modified SDLB studies remained at a constant level irrespective of AE exposure duration. (4) When the CE stimuli were of a type that minimized lateralization cues (heterophonic and π) the unadapted loudness balances were made at a lower intensity level during SDLB's than when the homophonic CE stimulus was used. The major conclusion of the present study was that the loudness of a moderate acoustic signal does not decrease as a function of the duration of the presentation.