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The mechanical admittance of the soundboards of four full-size concert harps from three manufacturers was measured, and the results show that there is little variation between them. More detailed vibro-acoustic data were then obtained for an Aoyama Amphion harp. Analysis of these data show that the individual soundholes amplify the radiated sound in successive frequency bands associated with the modal frequencies of the soundboard. The lower holes tend to contribute at the lower end of the frequency scale, and the higher holes at the higher end of the scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic inefficiencies and internal noise in a spectral profile discrimination task were investigated. Listeners detected a 1000-Hz sinusoid added in-phase to the central component of a complex consisting of 11 equal-intensity sinusoids. Parameters for a channel model that employs decision weights and internal noise were estimated with molecular psychophysical techniques. Maximum likelihood predictions of the model were generally within a few decibels of observed thresholds. The degree to which an assumption of ideal weights leads to overestimation of internal noise was also assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Auditory and vibrotactile stimuli share similar temporal patterns. A psychophysical experiment was performed to test whether this similarity would lead into an intermodal bias in perception of sound intensity. Nine normal-hearing subjects performed a loudness-matching task of faint tones, adjusting the probe tone to sound equally loud as a reference tone. The task was performed both when the subjects were touching and when they were not touching a tube that vibrated simultaneously with the probe tone. The subjects chose on average 12% lower intensities (p < 0.01) for the probe tone when they touched the tube, suggesting facilitatory interaction between auditory and tactile senses in normal-hearing subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]