Duration sensation when listening to complex tones

Abstract

The duration sensation (DS) is defined as one of the primary sensations of the sound signal [Y. Ando, J. Sound Vib. 240(4), to be published on 1 March 2001]. The DS of complex-tone stimuli was examined here by the paired-comparison test while changing the residue pitch or fundamental frequency, i.e., the delay time of the first peak (FP) extracted from the @ autocorrelation function. The white noise was used as a reference and complex tones (two pure-tone components) with three fundamental frequencies, 250, 500 and 1000 Hz, used as test stimuli. Ten subjects judged whether or not the white-noise duration is longer than the complex tone duration under constant 80 dB (A). The rise and fall times defined by the time at a −3 dB drop from the steady level were 1 ms constant. Previous results indicate that the DSs of the pure tone and bandpass-noise stimuli judged longer with the FP longer than that of the stimuli with shorter FP. The purpose of this investigation is to examine whether or not the DS of the fundamental frequency of complex tones is similar to the DS of the pure tone. Experimental results will be presented.