Ira J. Hirsh and the Acronyms of Auditory Perception

摘要

In a career that spans more than 50 years to date, the name of Ira J. Hirsh has been associated with significant scientific contributions to psychoacoustics, outstanding mentoring of research scientists, and dedicated service to the fields of acoustics, audiology, and psychology. It is a career that can be traced by acronyms that are part of the daily vocabulary of hearing scientists. These include acronyms of location: the Psychoacoustics Laboratory at Harvard (PAL), the Central Institute for the Deaf (CID), and Washington University (WashU); acronyms of professional societies that have honored him: Acoustical Society of America (ASA), International Congress of Acoustics (ICA), American Psychological Association (APA), American Psychological Society (APS), American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and American Academy of Audiology (AAA); acronyms of his service to the National Academy of Science: National Research Council (NRC), Commission on Behavioral and Social Science and Education (CBASSE), and Committee on Hearing, Bioacoustics, and Biomechanics (CHABA); and acronyms of his contributions to psychoacoustics: masking level difference (MLD) and temporal order judgments (TOJ). In large part, these acronyms are part of our vocabulary because of Hirsh's contributions, and tracing them during the last half century yields a substantive look at the development of the field of hearing science.