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Does Loudness Represent Sound Intensity?

Soland, Kim (2021) Does Loudness Represent Sound Intensity? [Preprint]

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Abstract

In this paper I challenge the widely held assumption that loudness is the perceptual correlate of sound intensity. Drawing on psychological and neuroscientific evidence, I argue that loudness is best understood not as a representation of any feature of a sound wave, but rather as a reflection of the salience of a sound wave representation; loudness is determined by how much attention a sound receives. Loudness is what I call a quantitative character, a species of phenomenal character that is determined by the amount of attention that an underlying perceptual representation commands. I distinguish quantitative from qualitative character; even qualitative characters that represent degrees of sensible magnitudes are phenomenally and functionally distinct from quantitative characters. A bifurcated account of phenomenal character emerges; the phenomenal is not exhausted by the qualitative.

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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Soland, Kimkim.soland@gmail.com0000-0002-2333-9643
Keywords: loudness; salience; quantitative character
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Perception
Depositing User: Dr. Kim Soland
Date Deposited: 10 Apr 2022 18:29
Last Modified: 10 Apr 2022 18:29
Item ID: 20428
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Perception
Date: 31 October 2021
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20428

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