Citation

Grassi M. Perception 2010; 39(10): 1424-1426.

Affiliation

Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università di Padova, via Venezia 8, I 35131 Padua, Italy. massimo.grassi@unipd.it

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, SAGE Publications)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

21180365

Abstract

Looming sounds (sounds increasing in intensity over time) are more salient than receding sounds (a looming sound reversed in time). For example, they are estimated as being longer, louder, and more changing in loudness than receding sounds. Some authors interpret the looming salience as evolutionarily adaptive, because it increases the margins of safety of the perceiver in the case of preparatory behaviours (e.g., a motor reaction to an approaching sound source). Recently, Neuhoff et al (2009, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 35 225-234) found that females more than males show overestimation of the spatiotemporal properties of virtually simulated looming sound sources. Here, I investigated whether the sex difference could be observed for the subjective duration of looming and receding sounds, and found that females more than males overestimate the duration of looming sounds in comparison to receding sounds.

Language: en