Stimulus set effects in the similarity ratings of unfamiliar complex sounds

This study examined the effect of the distribution of values for various acoustic properties on the similarity ratings obtained in a paired-comparison study of complex sounds. Listeners rated the similarity of tones and tone complexes in one of four sets. Across the four sets both component frequency and the number of components in the stimuli were drawn from distributions that were either categorical or noncategorical. Other acoustic properties were distributed similarly in all sets. Solutions suggested that frequency was most important to the ratings, followed by the number of components in each critical band. Results suggest that when the values of an acoustic property are distributed categorically, its importance to similarity ratings increases relative to that observed with a less categorical distribution.