Pitch discrimination as a function of tone duration

Abstract

Numerous experiments have studied pitch discrimination for sine tones as a function of the duration T of the two tones to be discriminated. All the data agree that as T decreases the uncertainty in pitch discrimination becomes larger, and the functional dependence of the uncertainty on T has been used to test various models of pitch perception. However, all simple models, whether temporal or spectral, predict that if the two tones have different durations, T1 and T2, then the uncertainty should lie between the uncertainty obtained when both tones have duration T1 and the uncertainty obtained when both tones have duration T2. To find out whether this is so we measured the variability in a pitch matching task where the tones to be matched had different durations. The matching task provides data on pitch uncertainty in the presence of large duration‐dependent pitch shifts whereas a standard discrimination experiment does not. We studied seven different frequencies between 200 and 7000 Hz and all combinations of 12, 25, and 50 ms for T1, and T2. Ninety percent of the data with T1 ≠ T2 show a variability which is larger than would be expected based upon the variability in the data with T1 = T2. We believe that it is possible to understand these results in terms of an improved statistical decision theoretic model of pitch perception. [Work supported by the National Institutes of Health Grant 17917.]