VOL. 20, 1934 PS YCHOLOGYY: S. S.

STEVENS 4fi7

THE A TTRIBUTES OF TONES

BY S. S. STEVENS
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCEOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Communicated June 6, 1934
It has long been known that the interaction of a sound stimulus with
the human auditory mechanism gives rise to the two discriminatory re-
sponses known as pitch and loudness. In addition to these two responses
we must recognize tonal volume, first studied by Rich' in 1916, and tonal
density. These four discriminable attributes are all functions of the two
dimensions of the stimulus, frequency and energy. It is the purpose of
this paper to discuss the nature of these functions as experimentally
determined.
The method used by Kingsbury2 to determine the well-known equal
loudness contours was employed to determine similar isophonic contours
for pitch, volume and density. Two tones of different frequency were
presented alternately to an observer who was allowed to vary the energy
of one of the tones until the two tones sounded equal in respect of the
attribute in question. This procedure yields, in the case of loudness,
contours having a minimum near the middle of the audible range. A part
of one of these contours is shown in figure 1.
When the observer is asked to make two tones of different frequency
sound equal in volume (meaning "bigness" or spread), he increases the
intensity of the higher tone by an amount which depends upon the in-
tensity level of the standard tone. The results of a series of equations of
this type are shown by the curve marked "volume" in figure 1. This
curve is the smoothed average of the results obtained from four observers
by having them match each tone to a standard ten times. The average
percentage variation of these equations, as measured in terms of the voltage
across the output of the audio-oscillator, was 7.9.
When instructions are given for the observer to make the two tones
equal in density, the procedure is reversed. The lower tone has to be
made more intense, as is shown in figure 1. The observers were able to
make these judgments with a percentage variation of 8.8. Furthermore,
the introspective reports show that both volume and density are judged
with a high degree of subjective certainty. Some observers insisted that
no greater certainty attended their judgments of loudness itself. However,
the percentage variation obtained from a series of equations for loudness
was 6.9, a value which is slightly lower than those cited above for volume
and density.
It should be noted that it is a very simple matter to convey to a naive
observer what is meant by volume and density by presenting him with a
458 PS YCHOLOGY: S. S. STEVENS PROC. N. A. S.

high tone at about 4000 cycles and asking him to note its "smallness"
(volume) and its "compactness" or "concentration" (density) and to
contrast these characteristics with those of a low tone at about 200 cycles.
The difference is at once obvious.
It has generally been supposed that pitch is dependent solely upon the
frequency of the stimulus, although several investigators have reported
slight changes in pitch as the energy of the stimulus is altered. A sys-
tematic study of this effect was made by Zurmuhl3 for frequencies ranging
between 256 and 3072 cycles. Zurmuhl found that an increase in the

4
~~~~~~4

100 5030 SO 100 10 20 30 40 300

oftones e e a
I-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~7 d o f c n0 32000-rqec=50

W-2- ~~~~~~~-2 00

-4 IL__
a:~~~~~~~~~~a .4
100 s0 0 50 100 1020 30 40 50 60708
FREQ UENCY -C. R. S. DS ABOVE T HRESHO LD.
FIGURE 1 FIGURE 2
Figure 1. Isophonic contours representing equal pitch, loudness, volume and density
of tones equated to a standard tone of 500 cycles and 60 db. Thus 0-frequency = 500
cycles; 0-intensity = 60 db. above the auditory threshold. The pitch contour almost
coincides with the 0-vertical when plotted to this scale; but see figure 2 for the mag-
nitude of its deviation.
Figure 2. Change in pitch of tones at 500, 3200 and 400 cycles as a function of in-
tensity of the tones. Intensity is in db. above the auditory threshold. The change
of pitch is measured by the percentage change in frequency that must be made in order
to counteract the change of pitch.

intensity of the stimulus caused a drop in the pitch. The percentage of

decrease was more for low tones than for high. There was, in fact, almost
no change in the pitch of the 3072-cycle tone. The writer has been able
to verify these facts by having observers adjust the intensity of one of two
tones of different frequency until the two tones are subjectively equal in
pitch. It appears, however, that the pitch of a tone of 4000 cycles goes
up and not down when there is an increase in the energy of the stimulus
(see Fig. 2).
This reversal of the pitch effect at high frequencies occurred for all three
of the observers and suggested that a frequency could be found at which
there would be no change of pitch. Thus, by using a variation of the
VOL. 20, 1934 PSYCHOLOGY: S. S. STEVENS 459
method of constant stimuli, the frequency at which pitch remains con-
stant for all values of energy was found to lie between 3100 and 3300 cycles
for these observers. It is significant that in this range of frequencies the
sensitivity of the ear is maximal.4 In other words, the pitch of a tone is
shifted away from the region of greatest sensitivity when the intensity of
the tone is increased and toward the region of greatest sensitivity when
the intensity is decreased.
We have, then, four distinct types of discriminatory response, all of
which arise from the interaction of a two-dimensional acoustic stimulus
with a multi-dimensional nervous system. With the method employed
in these experiments the observer performs a r6le analogous to that of a
null instrument. He is "set" or "tuned" by the experimenter's instructions
to respond to a difference in a certain aspect of his experience and then the
stimulus is adjusted until he ceases to notice a difference. The important
point is that the observer can be "tuned" in four different ways. The
fact that each type of instruction leads to a response which is a function
of the two stimulus variables means that the system can be thought of as
bidimensional, but the fact that there are four different types of response
means that it should be possible to discover at least four distinguishing
characteristics in the neural pattern emanating from the cochlea by the
auditory nerve. There is evidence to show that two separate auditory
excitations can differ in respect of their position on the basilar membrane,
the number of fibres excited, the spread of this excitation and the ratio
of active to inactive fibres within the area excited. If these factors could
be correlated with pitch, loudness, volume and density, respectively, the
solution of the problem of hearing would be greatly furthered.
1 G. J. Rich, J. Exper. Psychol., 1, 13-22 (1916).
2 B. A. Kingsbury, Phys. Rev., 29, 588-600 (1927).
3 G. Zurmuhi, Z. f. Sinnesphysiol., 61, 40-86 (1930).
4 L. J. Sivian and S. D. White, J. Acous. Soc. Amer., 4, 288-321 (1933).