The Psychophysical Structure of Complex Underwater Sounds.

Abstract

Eight complex passive sonar recordings were selected to represent a range of common natural and man-made underwater sounds. Nine musically experienced and ten musically inexperienced observers rated the similarity of all possible pairs of the eight signals using a five-point scale. These proximity data were decomposed using the INDSCAL multidimensional scaling program into an interpretable three-dimensional perceptual space. Two of these underlying dimensions reflected the overall shape of the 1/3- octave spectra of the eight signals, while the third was seen to reflect the prominence of a low frequency periodicity present in some signals. The perceptual spaces for musically experienced observers and musically inexperienced observers differed reliably in the relative importance or salience of the three dimensions.

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1976
Accession Number
ADA030543

Entities

People

  • James H. Howard Jr.

Organizations

  • The Catholic University of America

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Frequency
  • Observers
  • Passive Sonar
  • Periodic Variations
  • Sonar
  • Spectra
  • Three Dimensional
  • Underwater Sound

Readers

  • Speech Processing/Speech Recognition.
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.

Technology Areas

  • Space