Gender differences in loudness perception may be linguistically influenced

Abstract

Previous studies have reported gender differences in loudness perception. To clarify factors that affect loudness perception of men and women, so that differences in their processing of auditory stimuli might be revealed, we conducted four experiments using innovative experimental approaches. A rating experiment employed a wider range of sound stimuli and a greater number of categories on the verbal interval scale to elicit participants’ ratings of sounds at different sound pressure levels. As in previous studies, male participants tended to rate the same sounds as less loud than did females. An experiment with the method of adjustment measured the limits of sound pressure level perceived as soft or as loud, and replicated the gender effect: female participants selected lower levels than did males to represent both soft and loud sound categories. The final two experiments sought to measure perceived loudness on a (numeric) ratio scale rather than a (verbal) interval scale. Using the methods of magnitude estimation and magnitude production, these experiments did not produce the clear gender differences seen in the first two experiments. Differences in loudness judgments between males and females may actually reflect differences in the use of verbal expression rather than differences in perception of intensity.

Keywords

• gender difference
• loudness
• interval scale
• ratio scale
• verbal rating