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Convention Paper

Toward a Statistically Well-Grounded Evaluation of Listening Tests—Avoiding Pitfalls, Misuse, and Misconceptions

Authors: Nagel, Frederik; Sporer, Thomas; Sedlmeier, Peter

AES Convention 128 · Paper 8146 · May 2010

Abstract

Many recent publications in audio research present subjective evaluations of audio quality based on the

Recommendation ITU-R BS.1534-1 (MUSHRA, MUltiple Stimuli with Hidden Reference and Anchor). This

is a very welcome trend because it enables researchers to assess the implications of their developments. The

evaluation of listening tests, however, sometimes sufers from an incomplete understanding of the underlying

statistics. The present paper aims at identifying the causes for the pitfalls and misconceptions in MUSHRA

evaluations. It exemplifes the impact of falsely used or even misused statistics. Subsequently, schemes

for evaluating the listeners' judgments that are well-grounded on statistical considerations comprising an

understanding of the concepts of statistical power and efect size are proposed.

Details

Published in
AES Convention 128
AES Convention
128
Paper number
8146
Publication date
May 6, 2010
Session subject
Listening Tests and Evaluation Psychoacoustics
Affiliation
Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, Ilmenau, Germany; Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, Erlangen, Germany; Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Grmany (See document for exact affiliation information.)
Type
Convention Paper