Listener Evaluation of Stimulated Telephone Calling Signals

Technological considerations suggest t h a t an electronic "ringer" m a y succeed electromechanical devices in future telephones. This possibility has generated interest within the telephone industry in the specification of desirable characteristics for electronic calling signals. Not the least important of these characteristics is t h a t such signals be acceptable to the subscriber on purely aesthetic grounds. The literature on tone ringers includes some references 1 -- to the measurement of listeners' opinions, but only recently has any systematic work on what constitutes a pleasant signal begun to appear. 3 An earlier study by P. D. Bricker and J. L. F l a n a g a n ' marked the beginning of an a t t e m p t to chart the preference-relevant dimensions of a fairly large class of calling signals. The present paper reports five subsequent experiments t h a t have clarified the effects 011 evaluative judgments of a half-dozen parameters. These experiments have interacted with studies of callingsignal detectability and with development work to produce two distinct realizable signals, which are scheduled for evaluation in a field trial. II. E X P E R I M E N T 1