Wake-up levels for auditory warning?

["Bruce N. Walker" <walkerb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Does anyone know how loud a sound needs to be to *wake up* the intended
recipient (the sort of "smoke detector in the middle of the night"
scenario)?

Clearly it will depend on (at least) (1) the nature of the sound -- pitch,
frequency components, temporal properties, speech/nonspeech; (2) the
intervening environment -- the distance to the user, walls, background
noise...

Also, any info on the duration required at that dB level? Particularly
effective temporal patterns or pitch ranges?

By the way, I already have plenty of information on auditory warnings for
awake listeners (e.g., Patterson).

Any comments and references would be much appreciated - I will compile
responses and post to the list.

Regards,
--Bruce

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce Walker  (PC86-88)        Rice University Psychology Department
email: walkerb@rice.edu      6100 S. Main St., Houston, Texas, 77005
ph: (713) 522-2969 (home)              (713) 527-8101 x3772 (office)
Web: http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~walkerb        (713) 285-5221 (fax)
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