Authors:

GOCKEL, H., Plack, C.J. & CARLYON, R.P.

Reference:

Year of publication:

2005

CBU number:

6151

Abstract:

Ciocca and Darwin [V. Ciocca and C.J. Darwin, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 105, 2421-2430 (1999)] reported that the shift in residue pitch caused by mistuning a single harmonic (the 4th out of the first 12) was the same when the mistuned harmonic was presented after the remainder of the complex as when it was simultaneous, even though subjects were asked to ignore the pure-tone percept. The present study tried to replicate this result, and investigated the role of the presence of the nominally mistuned harmonic in the matching sound. Subjects adjusted a ìmatchingî sound so that its pitch equaled that of a subsequent 90-ms complex tone (12 harmonics of a 155-Hz F0), whose mistuned (+ or -3%) 3rd harmonic was presented either simultaneously with or after the remaining harmonics. In experiment 1, the matching sound was a harmonic complex whose 3rd harmonic was either present or absent. In experiments 2A and 2B, the target and matching sound had non-overlapping spectra. Pitch shifts were reduced both when the mistuned component was non-simultaneous, and when the 3rd harmonic was absent in the matching sound. The results indicate a shorter than originally estimated time window for obligatory integration of non-simultaneous components into a virtual pitch.