Discrimination and identification of modulation rate using a noise carrier

Modulation-rate perception was measured for three tasks: a fixed-standard, forced-choice discrimination task with a 500-ms interstimulus interval; a random-standard, forced-choice discrimination task with an 8-s interstimulus interval; and an identification task. Thresholds were obtained for modulation rates from 14-224 Hz using noise carriers bandpass filtered from 500-4000 Hz, 500-1600 Hz, 1700-2800 Hz, and 2900-4000 Hz. The four bands yielded similar results except for modulation rates greater than 100 Hz, where the 500- to 1600-Hz thresholds were higher. Fixed-standard discrimination thresholds were about 3 Hz for modulation rates up to 66 Hz. The increase of thresholds for modulation rates above 66 Hz could be due to temporal resolution limits with a time constant of about 2-3 ms. For modulation rates above 100 Hz, critical-band filtering may further decrease sensitivity for the 500- to 1600-Hz noise band. Resolution in the random-standard discrimination task was similar to that for the identification task. Thresholds were elevated relative to fixed-standard thresholds except at the extremes of the stimulus range. In the random-standard discrimination task, a pronounced criterion bias was present for stimuli near the extremes of the range. Durlach and Braida's model [N. I. Durlach and L. D. Braida, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 46, 372-383 (1969)] describes the data well and provides quantitative measures for our data in good agreement with those for intensity perception.