Re: "gender" differences in perception of environmental sounds

["Gossmann, Joachim" <jgossmann@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi -

I have in this context a question regarding the a-priori categorization of persons in statistical investigations.

Has there ever been an approach that tries to structure different perceptual results not along the lines of inferred categories such as "sex" or "gender" but rather with an approximation of the "holistic" ideal of ethnographic research?

It seems to me that while it is our only choice to infer our known and trusted models/forms of representation into unknown areas of investigation, we still need to be aware that the results we get will necessarily appear inside of a simplified structure that is inherent to our question and might not be adequate to the subject matter.

Specifically, is there for example a way to integrate the concept of "personal involvement" into an investigation, or are studies always intended only for the discovery of immediate correlations between stimulus and perceptual result without the contribution of a "person"?

This might be a very basic question, but since I'm not a cognitive scientist, but a (probably over-)educated listener, I thought I'd use my jester's license to ask it anyway, being extremely curious how this problem is generally approached.

Best,

Joachim