Auditory demonstrations (Yoshitaka Nakajima )

Subject: Auditory demonstrations
From:    Yoshitaka Nakajima  <nakajima(at)KYUSHU-ID.AC.JP>
Date:    Sat, 23 Sep 2000 17:04:31 +0900

Dear Colleagues,

Although it may not be so impressive to add another
tiny piece to this almost finished discussion, I
would like to make one point clear looking back some
history.

The visual demonstrations in Koffka's (1935)
"Principles of Gestalt Psychology" helped many
researchers and students to realize the importance
of the new way of thinking developed by a few German
psychologists.  However, the technical limitation of
that time prohibited him and his colleagues from
utilizing auditory demonstrations effectively.  Neither
Stevens and Davis (1938) nor Seashore (1938) showed any
interest in Gestalt psychology.  This limited the scope
of auditory psychology for a while.  Plomp (1976) may
have been one of the first leading researchers who
pointed out this problem, but he did that in the last
page of his famous book.

Still, many researchers and students in the field of
visual perception and cognition seem to think that
auditory psychology may be rigorous but a little bit
dull.  I would like each of my colleagues to persuade
them that our community has as intriguing materials as
they have.  For this purpose, it seems important to
make auditory demonstrations as easily available as
visual demonstrations.  This was my point.

                         Yoshitaka Nakajima
                         Department of Acoustic Design
                         Kyushu Institute of Design