To provide insight into the behavioral characteristics of people who listen excessively to loud music, the 32-item Northeastern Excessive Music Listening Survey was developed and administered to 90 subjects. Results indicate that 8 of the 90 subjects scored within a range that would suggest the presence of a maladaptive pattern of music-listening behavior similar to that exhibited by substance abusers. Implications for further research and models of treatment are discussed.

This paper tests the hypothesis that the loudness ratio between equal-SPL tones with different durations is the same at all SPLs. Detection thresholds and levels required to produce equal loudness for 5- and 200-ms tones presented in quiet or in broadband noise were measured using adaptive, two-interval, two-alternative forced-choice procedures. Tone levels ranged from 5 dB SL to 90 dB SPL for the long tones and about 100 dB SPL for the short tones. Results from six listeners with normal hearing show that the amount of temporal integration, defined as the level difference between equally loud 5- and 200-ms tones, varies nonmonotonically with level and is greatest at moderate levels. The average amount of temporal integration in quiet is about 15 dB near threshold, increases to a peak of 27 dB when the 5-ms tone is about 58 dB SPL, and decreases to about 15 dB near 100 dB SPL. For masker levels of 40, 60, and 80 dB SPL, the amount of temporal integration near masked threshold remains near 15 dB. The maximum amount of temporal integration decreases as masker level increases and occurs at progressively higher levels. At high levels, the amount of temporal integration is nearly the same as in the quiet for all masker levels. Loudness functions derived by applying the equal-loudness-ratio hypothesis to the data yield excellent predictions of loudness matches between tones in the quiet and partially masked tones with the 40- and 60-dB maskers. For the 80-dB masker, clear deviations are present. These results support the equal-loudness-ratio hypothesis, but suggest that intense masking may alter the loudness ratio between 200- and 5-ms tones.

Temporal integration of loudness for 1-kHz tones presented in quiet and under white-noise masking was measured for 5- and 200-ms tones using an adaptive 2I,2AFC procedure. Levels ranged from 5 to 90 dB SL. Results for six listeners with normal hearing show that the amount of temporal integration, defined as the level difference between equally loud 5- and 200-ms stimuli, varies nonmonotonically with level and is greatest at moderate levels. The average amount of temporal integration is about 15 dB near threshold, increases to a peak of 27 dB when the 5-ms tone is about 53 dB SPL, and decreases to about 15 dB near 100 dB SPL. For masker levels of 40, 60, and 80 dB SPL, the amount of temporal integration near masked threshold remains about 15 dB. The maximum amount of temporal integration decreases as masker level increases and occurs at progressively higher levels. At high levels, the amount of temporal integration is nearly the same as in quiet for all masker levels. These results are consistent with the loudness function being steeper near masked threshold than at the same SPLs in quiet. [Work supported by NIH-NIDCD R01DC02241.]