Is there an auditory analogue to Fechner's paradox in binaural loudness perception?

Abstract

In binocular brightness perception a phenomenon called Fechner's paradox can be observed. This paradox implies non-monotonicities in the psychometric functions of binocular brightness. Lehky (1983) proposed a model that describes such non-monotonicities. He suggested that Fechner's paradox also exists in binaural loudness perception. However, until now no sufficient data have been collected to test this hypothesis. Therefore, an experiment was conducted in which 36 psychometric functions were obtained using binaural stimuli in the range of intensities in which Fechner's paradox supposedly occurs. As a result, no significant non-monotonicities were found. However, it is shown that jnds derived from the psychometric functions contradict predictions derived from the limited binaural additivity model of Gigerenzer and Strube (1983).