ABSTRACT
This chapter describes an experimental paradigm for continuing the work of identifying the perceptually relevant attributes of complex auditory signals. The development of Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is especially crucial to the advancement of understanding of auditory perception because MDS has been shown to be particularly suited to perceptual situations involving highly complex multidimensional stimuli. Although the interactive procedures help solve the representation and reliability problems, they require that the stimuli must be immediately accessible to the computer. In addition, digitized stimuli are required in the construction of the mathematical auditory perception model so that a mathematical analysis of the wave form of each stimulus can be made. A final design recommendation relates to the fact that individual differences exist in auditory perception. In addition to design considerations centered around the nature of the stimuli, there are considerations related to procedures for interpreting the perceptual structure derived from the similarity judgments.
