When a sound gets louder, what has to happen in the ear before you “hear” loudness?
Receptors in the cochlea have to perform transduction: stimulus energy becomes neural signals. That process is sensation (Myers & DeWall, 2021; Spielman et al., 2020). Perception — organizing those signals into an object or a word — is the next article. A louder sound typically raises firing rate. The loudness you report is already a construct inferred from what you say or do.
How faint can a tone be and still count as detected?
The absolute threshold is the intensity detected on a specified proportion of trials, often 50%. The difference threshold is the smallest change that is detected. Figure 9.1 is the sequence from energy to neural signal so a later sentence cannot skip transduction and still claim to be talking about the ear.
- Stimulus energy — pressure in air, light, chemical, mechanical.
- Receptor — a cell built to respond to that class of energy.
- Transduction — energy becomes a neural signal.
- Signal toward the CNS — spikes on a sensory pathway.
Check yourself with a quick quiz
A few questions on this lesson only. Questions you miss come back later. Progress stays in this browser and is shared with the full quiz.
References
- Myers, D. G., & DeWall, C. N. (2021). Psychology (13th ed.). Worth.
- Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Psychology 2e. OpenStax.
Image and media credits
- Top image. A tuning fork standing in a wooden block. It sets the scene for this lesson on sensation. Source: Created for this site with Grok Imagine (xAI), an AI image generator. License: Original image made for mattgaugerx.com.
