The perception of size and shape of resonant objects

Abstract

Background

We investigated the ability of naïve, untrained listeners to identify physical parameters from listening to single impulse sound that 3D polystyrene objects generate as result of an impact collision. We were specifically interested in the perception of object shape and object size and their interaction.

Material and Methods

Twenty polystyrene objects of various shapes (spheres, hearts, cubes, eggs, rings and cones) and sizes (between 64 cm 3 and 2278cm 3 ) were used in three experiments investigating relative and absolute size shape perception. In the first experiment, the task was to identify the ‘odd one out’ of three sounds of different shape or size. In the second experiment the task was to identify the shape and size of an object just by listening to it. In the third experiment the task was to rate how similar two sounds are.

Results

Results show that listeners were able to a degree to identify the size and the shape of objects without reference and in relation to each other. Multidimensional scaling suggests that shape (most salient) and size (second most salient) are the predominant perceptual dimensions.

Conclusions

We conclude that humans, to some degree and without training and without prior experience, have the ability to infer physical properties of object size and shape by listening to single impulse sounds. Size and shape seem to be independent and the most salient parameters.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for S. Bleeck: orcid.org/0000-0003-4378-3394

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