psychoakustische

Psychoacoustics is the branch of psychophysics that studies how humans perceive sound. It examines the sensory and perceptual processes that convert physical sound waves into auditory experiences, including detection, loudness, pitch, timbre, and spatial hearing. In German usage the term psychoakustische is commonly used as an adjective to describe phenomena related to this field.

Core concepts include loudness perception, which follows non-linear scales (phon, sone); pitch perception, related to frequency and temporal cues; and timbre, the perceptual quality distinguishing different sound sources. Auditory masking describes how sounds can obscure others, and the idea of critical bands (or Bark bands) explains frequency selectivity in the cochlea. Other foundations include equal-loudness contours (the Fletcher–Munson curves) and perceptual modeling such as Weber–Fechner and Stevens' power law relationships between physical energy and perceived magnitude.

Methods combine behavioral experiments with physiological data from the auditory system. Psychoacoustic models are used in audio signal processing to predict perceptual relevance of distortions, guide loudness normalization, and support perceptual coding in digital audio formats (for example MP3, AAC).

Applications span audio engineering, hearing research, sound design, and multimedia technologies. Ongoing work investigates binaural hearing, auditory scene analysis, and the psychoacoustic factors that influence loudness, intelligibility, and quality in complex acoustic environments.