Re: sex differences in perception of environmental sounds

[valeriy shafiro <firosha@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Joanna,

As far as I know across the studies of environmental sound perception
in the last 20-30 years none was designed specifically to examine
male/female differences.  Results from studies that looked at
identification of large collections of different types of
environmental sounds also did not find any differences, although in a
recent study on environmental sound identification within contextually
congruent and incongruent auditory scenes, Brian Gygi and I, saw an
overall identification difference between males and females, but it
was small (3-4 points) and non significant.  It is conceivable that
given a large variety of familiar environmental sounds tested in these
studies, whatever differences there may be between males and females
are obscured, and that for a set of specific sounds there are may be
sex differeces in behavioral of physiologic measures (e.g. baby
crying).  While not specifically targeting environmental sounds, John
Neuhoff did find some interesting sex differences in the perception of
looming motion, which might relevant to your question.

Best regards,

Valeriy

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 7:40 AM, Joanna Kantor-Martynuska
<joanna.kantor@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Dear Auditory List,
>
> I would very much appreciate your suggestions about the literature regarding
> sex differences in perception of environmental sounds. I’m intrested in
> physiological indices of auditory predispositions for perception of
> different sounds we encounter in our natural environment.
>
> Looking forward to any interesting suggestions or links.
>
> Best,
> Joanna Kantor