Re: Gaussian vs uniform noise audibility

[Israel Nelken <israel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Bob,
       What do you mean by:
> I tested Gaussian white noise with standard deviations of
> 2.0, 1.0, 0.5, and 0.1, compared to uniform white noise.
> Noise sources were continuous and non-repeating.  I found
> that in all cases except for SD = 0.1 the levels could
> be adjusted to give the percept of a single continuous
> source.
       I ran informally similar tests (using matlab), with similar results. A
uniform distribution between 0 and 1 has an std of 1/sqrt(12), or about
0.3, so it should fit a gaussian with the same std. It is unclear what
was the uniform distribution that you used, but this type of
calculations should be able to reproduce your results.
       I don't understand your 0.1 case, though. Reducing the std should not
change the shape of the distribution, and should be equivalent to
changing the volume control (since the square of the std is the energy
of the sound). This should not change the perception!
       Eli

--
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Israel Nelken
Dept. of Neurobiology
The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences
Edmond Safra Campus, Givat Ram    | Tel: Int-972-2-6584229
Hebrew University                 | Fax: Int-972-2-6586077
Jerusalem 91904, ISRAEL           | Email: israel@md.huji.ac.il
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