Synth Science

Evidence map

Psychoacoustics: what the evidence base looks like

4 publications, 0 of them trials and 0 syntheses. This page describes the shape of that literature rather than summarising its conclusions.

Updated 3 min read 4 citations

What the evidence on psychoacoustics is made of Of 4 publications on this topic, the breakdown by study type: 4 other. 4other (4)
4 publications, by study type. Volume is not strength — the same count can be a settled question or a pile of commentary, and which one it is depends almost entirely on this breakdown. Harvested from PubMed and Crossref; publication type as recorded by the source.

What this literature is made of

This is a thin evidence base. It is included because the question gets asked, not because the literature has settled it — and a page that pretended otherwise would be worse than one that says so.

The distinction that matters most is between synthesis and primary research. A meta-analysis pools trials and is the closest thing to a settled answer a field produces. A narrative review is one group's reading of the same material and can be selective without being dishonest. Counting them together, which most citation counts do, obscures exactly the thing you want to know.

When the psychoacoustics literature was published Publication years for the 4 papers on this topic, grouped into bands from before 2015 through to 2023 onwards. Before 20153 papers2015-20191 papers
Mostly settled or quiet. The most recent paper here is from 2016, which usually means either a closed question or one that has fallen out of fashion. Publication years as recorded by PubMed and Crossref.

How this page is built

Everything above is computed from the citations this site harvested from PubMed and Crossref, not written by hand. When the weekly harvest finds a new paper on this topic, these counts change and the characterisation changes with them. That is the point: a hand-written claim about how strong an evidence base is starts decaying the day it is written.

Publication type is taken as the source records it. That is imperfect — journals label inconsistently, and a paper indexed as a "review" may be a systematic one — so treat the bands as approximate. They are accurate enough to distinguish a trial literature from a commentary literature, which is the distinction that matters.

The strongest work on this topic

Ordered by study design first, then recency. The full set is listed in the references below.

  1. Auditory Time-Frequency Masking for Spectrally and Temporally Maximally-Compact Stimuli — Necciari T, Laback B, Savel S et al., 2016, journal article
  2. Effects of sequential streaming on auditory masking using psychoacoustics and auditory evoked potentials — Verhey JL, Ernst SM, Yasin I, 2012, journal article
  3. Critical bands and critical ratios in animal psychoacoustics: an example using chinchilla data — Yost WA, Shofner WP, 2009, journal article
  4. Profile analysis: critical bands and duration — Green DM, Mason CR, Kidd G Jr, 1984, journal article
How much research is there on psychoacoustics?
4 publications are indexed here, of which 0 are trials and 0 are syntheses.
Does more research mean a stronger conclusion?
No. Composition matters more than volume — five randomised trials support a claim far better than fifty commentaries, and citation counts do not distinguish between them.
How current is this?
The most recent paper indexed here is from 2016. The set is refreshed weekly from PubMed and Crossref.
Why does this page not tell me the answer?
Because summarising a literature into a conclusion requires reading it, and doing that automatically is how confident nonsense gets published. This page tells you how much weight a conclusion could bear; the articles on this site do the interpreting.

References

Every citation below links to the original peer-reviewed record on PubMed or via DOI. Nothing here is a substitute for medical advice.

  1. Auditory Time-Frequency Masking for Spectrally and Temporally Maximally-Compact Stimuli Necciari T, Laback B, Savel S, et al. · PloS one · 2016 · Journal article DOIPubMed 27875575Full text
  2. Effects of sequential streaming on auditory masking using psychoacoustics and auditory evoked potentials Verhey JL, Ernst SM, Yasin I · Hearing research · 2012 · Journal article DOIPubMed 22326589
  3. Critical bands and critical ratios in animal psychoacoustics: an example using chinchilla data Yost WA, Shofner WP · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2009 · Journal article DOIPubMed 19173418Full text
  4. Profile analysis: critical bands and duration Green DM, Mason CR, Kidd G Jr · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1984 · Journal article DOIPubMed 6725764