Psychophysical Methods For Measuring Thresholds
Measurement of the absolute hearing threshold provides some basic information about our auditory system. The tools used to collect such information are called psychophysical methods. Through these, the perception of a physical stimulus (sound) and our psychological response to the sound is measured.
There are several different psychophysical methods which can be used for the measurement of absolute threshold. These methods may vary in many ways; however, certain aspects are identical. Firstly, the stimulus is defined, and the manner by which the person should respond is clearly specified. The sound is then presented to the listener and the level of the stimulus is manipulated in a predetermined pattern. The absolute threshold is defined statistically, often as an average of all obtained hearing thresholds.
Some procedures use a series of trials, with each trial using the ‘single-interval “yes”/”no” paradigm’. This means that sound may be present or absent in the single interval, and the listener has to say whether he thought the stimulus was there. When the interval does not contain a stimulus, it is called a "catch trial".
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