Amplitude and Time Jitter Thresholds for Rectangular-Wave Trains

Abstract

Thresholds were obtained for the absolute detection and the relative discrimination of amplitude variation (“jitter”), of time variation, and of combined amplitude and time variation of individual half-waves of auditory rectangular-wave trains. The results for amplitude variation alone, or for temporal variation alone, closely reflect previous obtained thresholds of temporal variation for monopolar pulse trains. Thresholds approaching 0.1% were obtained for long high-frequency trains. Additive models for the interaction of amplitude and time jitter were examined for the case of the discrimination of changes in amplitude or time variation alone, and for changes in combined amplitude and time variation for signals with both amplitude and time jitter. A description that reasonably describes their interaction assumes orthogonal representation with vector addition of amplitude and time variation.