CHAPTER 2 Introduction to Hearing Acoustics and Psychoacoustics by David Howard and Jamie Angus Psychoacoustics is the study of how humans perceive sound. To begin our exploration of psycho- acoustics it is first necessary to become familiar with the basic anatomy of the human hearing system to facilitate understanding of: the effect the normal hearing system has on sounds entering the ear, the origin of fundamental psychoacoustic findings relevant to the perception of music, how listening to very loud sounds can cause hearing damage, and