March 2023
The atmosphere of Matera is timeless and almost surreal. It is a place where you can feel very comfortable – a good start for an inner journey.
Marco Di Giusto
Sassi di Matera, Italy
The associated spectrogram looks like this.
Why do psychoacoustics matter?
Psychoacoustics describe the link between physical acoustic stimuli received at the eardrum and their perception by human beings – going way beyond what can be described by sound pressure levels. Human perception roots in the sounds transmitted by the inner ear to the hair cells in the cochlea to the human brain. Understanding how these sounds are perceived is the core of psychoacoustic research. The human ear is not operating linearly. Humans hear selectively; they perceive patterns, not third-octave spectra; they perceive loudness, not sound pressure levels. Humans have strong skills in comparing sounds and detecting changes in sounds and acoustic situations. The challenge lies in understanding the phenomenon of human perception and providing perceptual models for numerical calculations of sound attributes as perceived by humans.