Perception of changes in loudness

Neuhoff reported that "rising level tones... change (in loudness) more than falling level tones despite having the same actual change in level... indicating that direction of change is an important (and previously unaddressed) factor in the perception of dynamic loudness change", and speculated that: "In a natural environment this over-estimation could provide a selective advantage, because rising intensity can signal movement of the source towards an organism." Leaving aside the question of why it may not be as important for survival to detect the movement of a sound source away from an organism, we dispute the assertion that there is no prior evidence about the influence of direction of change on the degree of change in perceived loudness. This evidence does exist and shows, in contrast to the result reported by Neuhoff, that declining signal intensity covers a greater range of loudness than does rising signal intensity.