Abstract
Limits on temporal resolution in auditory perception range from 25 ms, for the judgment of temporal order, to a lower limit of 3–4 ms for the discrimination of monaural phase. Results are presented on the discrimination of spectral shape for signals concentrated within this lower bound. A wideband, 4-ms noise was compared with spectrally smoothed versions. The phase spectrum was controlled by assigning the same random phase spectrum to both the original and smoothed signals. Depending on the choice of phase spectrum, discrimination thresholds for spectral shape were found to vary from 2–3 dB to as much as 15–17 dB, at which point the smoothed spectrum is essentially flat. This dependence on phase can be eliminated by presenting a train of transients, rather than a single transient. Such findings do not appear to be accounted for by synthesis artifact, nor by any simple features of either the complex spectrum or waveform envelope of these wideband signals. Phase effects are observed, however, in a computational model of the auditory nerve. [Work supported by the following grants from ONR: 61153.04114.00, MURI Z883402, and US DOD N66604-96-C-H366.]
Published Version
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