Page 51 - Fall2021

FEATURED ARTICLE
David M. Green and Psychoacoustics
William A. Yost, Roy D. Patterson, and Lawrence L. Feth
In July 2019, people from all over the world attended a symposium honoring a former Acoustical Society of America (ASA) president and Gold Medal recipient, David M. Green (Figure 1). Dave retired as professor emeritus from the University of Florida, Gainesville, in 1996, so one might wonder why he was being honored
23 years later and why so many people attended the sym- posium. Because we have known Dave a long time (the authors were in Dave’s lab in 1970-1971 during Dave’s tenure at the University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, from 1966 to 1973; see Figure 2), we would not be sur- prised if Dave’s answer was something like, “Of course they showed up, I know these people and they all like a good party.” The enjoyable symposium, “Greenfest,” was sponsored by the Knowles Hearing Center at Northwest- ern University, Evanston, Illinois (the organizers were Bev Wright [Chair], Bob Lutfi, Jungmee Lee, Ann Eddins, David Eddins, and Beth Strickland).
Dave was being honored for several reasons. Foremost, for his many important, often pioneering, and still timely contributions to understanding hearing. In addition, he was being honored for his numerous contributions to the ASA and his service on national committees that addressed important societal topics. A recent Acoustics Today online article about Dave’s tenure as ASA president describes several aspects of his career and accomplish- ments (available at bit.ly/2OPTqzK). Many people also attended Greenfest because they were one of the very large number of students, postdocs, and colleagues whom Dave has mentored over the years.
David Green’s prolific theoretical and empirical con- tributions cover a very wide range of topics in the behavioral sciences, especially those related to psycho- acoustical investigations of hearing. Dave is probably most well-known for his work on signal detection theory (SDT), which has had wide-ranging applica- tions in the behavioral sciences and for many societal issues. He also developed and tested models of auditory
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detection, discrimination, and identification and made contributions to many other topics, including his work on what has become known as profile analysis.
Figure 1. David M. Green at a previous home in Florida, 2007.
Figure 2. Green’s Research Group (GRG), 1970-1971. Back row (left-to-right): Sharon Able, Dave Green, Bill Yost, Roy Patterson, and Lynn Penner. Front row (left-to-right): Neal Viemeister, Larry Feth, and Chuck Robinson. Photo was taken at Dave’s home/pool in August 1970, by Elle Feth, Larry Feth’s wife. David’s swimming pool was more than a party local. It was the “lab” used in Norman et al. (1971, with assistance from the Roy Patterson study on hearing underwater.)
Volume 17, issue 3 | Fall 2021 • Acoustics Today 51