Perceptual quantifications in ear dominance perception of pitch

Abstract

Under dichotic listening conditions, segregation of pitch from the stimulus ear to a preferred ear, a characteristic of ear dominance perception of pitch, was measured for normal hearing listeners. A stimulus tonal sequence similar to that of Deutsch [(D. Deutsch, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 57, 1156–1160 (1975)] was partitioned into four sequences and played through headphones to listeners. Melodic contour mapping responses graphically produced by the listeners were compared to the actual stimulus sequence as their tonal sequence identification made by an attended ear. Data analyses of this auditory processing behavior show only partial dependency on the physical parameters comprising each stimulus sequence. An ANOVA did show the number of discrete frequency changes in the dichotic stimuli (1, 3, 5, and 7) were significantly different (F3.228 = 5.9, p < 0.001) and that differences in perception were relatively insensitive to tone burst and interburst durational changes in the stimulus. The data analyses did indicate strong dependency on certain nonphysical factors, i.e., musicianship (F1.75 = 7.7, p < 0.008). Two additional nonphysical factors approached statistical significance, i.e., handedness (F1.75 = 3.2, p < 0.08) and the ear to which the listener was attending (F1.75 = 3.1, p < 0.08). The contributions of these latter psychophysical factors to the compelling ear dominance perception suggest that tonal sequence pitch perception may entail diffuse neurophysiological processing.