Etude de la dispersion normale des caractéristiques auditives

Abstract
Auditory performances were measured on two groups of normally-hearing listeners, for a total of 107 persons, whose ages ranged from 14 to 50 with a majority between 20 and 25. Aside from the classical audiogram, the variable tested were absolute and masked detection thresholds for one part, and discrimination thresholds for the rest. The main goal of this test battery was to get an estimate of the normal distribution of auditory capabilities for intensity, frequency, time and space variables ; but we also measured binaural fusion, stream segregation, timbre discrimination, and selectivity in general. The objective behind this investigation is to build a simplified model for auditory perception, based on a multidimensional representation. In this model, the main features of auditory perception could be represented by independant vectors, and each individual by his components relative to these vectors. A statistical analysis of our data show that it is not perfectly clear yet what the independant factors are. Nevertheless, a "psychoacoustic profile" can be defined, for each individual or for groups of individuals, based on a limited set of variables, that might prove to be a useful tool for some professional applications.