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Perceptual grouping affects pitch judgments across time and frequency
Elizabeth M O Borchert1, Christophe Micheyl, Andrew J Oxenham
1Auditory Perception and Cognition Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Uiversity of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN, USA. olsen064@umn.edu
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance
|November 17, 2010
Summary
Listeners struggle to distinguish pitch differences between sequential sounds with varying timbres. For simultaneous sounds, pitch perception relies on perceptual fusion rather than direct fundamental frequency (F0) comparison.
Area of Science:
- Auditory perception
- Psychoacoustics
- Acoustic phonetics
Background:
- Pitch, linked to fundamental frequency (F0), is crucial for speech and music.
- F0 variations define melodies and prosody; simultaneous F0 comparisons aid harmony and sound segregation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the ability to detect F0 differences in sequential versus simultaneous tones.
- To investigate the impact of spectral filtering and timbre differences on F0 discrimination.
Main Methods:
- Listeners discriminated F0 differences between pairs of tones.
- Tones were filtered into separate spectral regions, inducing timbre variations.
- Conditions included sequential and simultaneous presentation of tones.
Main Results:
- Timbre differences impaired F0 discrimination for sequential tones.
- F0 discrimination remained effective for simultaneous tones despite timbre differences.
- Temporal overlap alone did not ensure good performance; perceptual object integration was key.
Conclusions:
- Comparing pitches of sequential sounds with different timbres is challenging.
- Simultaneous pitch differences may be perceived via reduced perceptual fusion, not explicit F0 coding.
- Perceptual object formation is critical for simultaneous pitch comparisons.
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