Transient complex and pure tone pitch changes by adaptation

The effect of pitch adaptation by a complex stimulus was examined in two experiments. In experiment 1, a monaural complex tone pitch change was measured after ipsilateral or contralateral complex stimulus adaptation. While ipsilateral adaptation resulted in pitch changes away from the pitch of the adapting stimulus, no pitch occurred for contralateral adaptation. The precision of pitch matching was reduced by both ipsilateral and contralateral adaptation. Experiment 2 examined whether the complex tone pitch changes in experiment 1 could be accounted for by pitch changes induced in the pure tone components. Results indicated that changes induced in the pure tone components were too small to account for the complex tone shift magnitudes found in experiment 1. These results support a degree of independence of complex tone pitch from the pitches of the pure tone components. Results also supported pitch extractor specialization for a particular ear of stimulus presentation.