Abstract:
Listeners judged which of two bandpass filtered (3900--5400 Hz) pulse trains had the higher pitch. In the control condition, where the two trains differed only in repetition rate, two cues might produce a pitch difference. The interval between any two pulses is a multiple of a common period, which is shorter for the train with the faster rate (the ``F0 cue''). This stimulus also contains more pulses (the ``mean rate cue''). Generally, temporal pitch models focus on the F0 cue. The mean rate cue was investigated by, in one condition, deleting a proportion (1-P) of the pulses in each train, and manipulating P so that the mean rate (P(centered dot)F0) was equal in the two halves of each trial [R. A. Dobie and N. Dillier, Hear. Res. 18, 41--45 (1985)]. Listeners identified the stimulus having the higher (original) F0 as possessing the higher pitch less reliably than in the control condition, and less reliably than in a condition where the mean rate difference was exaggerated. The conclusion that the mean rate cue can influence pitch, was confirmed a second experiment, where listeners adjusted the F0s of two pulse trains with different P's to have equal pitches.