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It's CONSISTENT, not superior!

If DBT participants yielded results that resemble random guessing, what's the use of DBT?

Training helps to increase listeners' acuity and consistency.
In psychoacoustic research the test subjects are trained before the real tests for perceptional thresholds begin. These test subjects are also examined for e.g. amplitude hearing thresholds, simply because you don't want to use half deaf for establishing reliable data.

These subjects will have superior hearing w.r.t. the parameter under investigation but the results will apply to the general population (e.g. hearing aids, telecom technology, audio codecs). You wouldn't refuse the hearing aid simply because it's based on findings obtained from "superior listeners", now would you?

When untrained listeners do not consistently (or not at all) detect an audible difference during DBT, this merely means that these people need (more) training, nothing more and nothing less. For instance, group delay thresholds are known (10 ms for bass, 2 ms for mids), but perhaps your personal threshold is twice these values, so without training you would fail the test (DBT or not). Does this lack of training mean that the test is flawed?

Klaus


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