Cross-modality matching of muscular tension to loudness

In a single session, Ss produced and estimated a series of electromyographically measured tensions, estimated the loudness of pure tones, and then matched muscular tension to tonal loudness. In all cases, power functions adequately represented the estimation and matching data. For two Ss, who scaled tension in the abductor of the little finger, the slopes of the estimation functions successfully predicted the slopes of the matching functions. For the other Ss the prediction from estimation to matching data was fair, but not good; these Ss scaled adductor tension, for which the electromyographic measurements were methodologically questionable. The data suggest that a consistent scale of muscular tension can be constructed, and that the scale can be validated by crossmodal comparison.