The development of perception in the preschool child.
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Child, Preschool↗
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Results for “Pitch Perception”
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Forms of binaural summation and the implications of individual variability for binaural hearing aids.
The advantages which a two-ear system has over a one-ear system appear to be manifold, but not all understood in detail. All probably play some role in the generally recognised advantage of binaural aids in offsetting auditory disabilities. Several possible forms of binaural summation are distinguished here and their possible role discussed. Experimental results with normally-hearing listeners and with aid users show that binaural summation is likely to lead to gain settings of about 6 dB lower than with otherwise equivalent monaural amplification. In some cases this may be a direct cause of benefit. However individuals differ systematically in the extent to which they show this effect, which may be relevant to prognosis for binaural aiding. Evidence is reported of an association between binaural summation and binaural advantage. Individuals also differ systematically in binaural summation for uncomfortable loudness level.
Auditory Perception↗
The problem of front-back localization in binaural hearing.
Some investigations concerning the problem of front-back discrimination in normal hearing are described. Three groups of experiments are included: Some objective measurements of transfer functions of the ears of four subjects, horizontal plane simulations and modifications of artificial-head signals in order to bring about directional inversions in the horizontal plane. It is concluded that subjects are able to utilize small individual characteristics in the transfer functions of their own outer ears to distinguish between front and back.
Adult↗
Transient frequency and intensity sensitivities of central auditory neurons determined with sweep tone.
To determine the transient frequency and intensity sensitivities of central auditory neurons, we implemented an exponential sweep tone stimulus (2 sec in period, mean sweep rate 3.3 octave/sec), intensity of which varied systematically across trials. Response of single units to the stimulus was studied at the inferior colliculus (IC) of urethane-anesthetized rats. Most IC units responded to the sweep tone by one or more transient increases in discharge rate. The area of increased discharge, or response area (RA), was delineated on the frequency-intensity plane. The tip of RA gives the best frequency (BF) and minimum threshold (MT) of the cell. We also compared the BF and MT concurrently obtained with another method, viz., the conventional 'audio-visual' method of subjective judgment. Results showed that for the same population of cells (n=130), correlation between the two methods is better for BF (r=0.91) than for MT (r=0.78). Such discrepancy was discussed in relation to the response characteristics of these central auditory neurons.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
An interval size illusion: the influence of timbre on the perceived size of melodic intervals.
In four experiments, we investigated the influence of timbre on perceived interval size. In Experiment 1, musically untrained participants heard two successive tones and rated the pitch distance between them. Tones were separated by six or seven semitones and varied in timbre. Pitch changes were accompanied by a congruent timbre change (e.g., ascending interval involving a shift from a dull to a bright timbre), an incongruent timbre change (e.g., ascending interval involving a shift from a bright to a dull timbre), or no timbre change. Ratings of interval size were strongly influenced by timbre. The six-semitone interval with a congruent timbre change was perceived to be larger than the seven-semitone interval with an incongruent timbre change (interval illusion). Experiment 2 revealed similar effects for musically trained participants. In Experiment 3, participants compared the size of two intervals presented one after the other. Effects of timbre were again observed, including evidence of an interval illusion. Experiment 4 confirmed that timbre manipulations did not distort the perceived pitch of tones. Changes in timbre can expand or contract the perceived size of intervals without distorting individual pitches. We discuss processes underlying interval size perception and their relation to pitch perception mechanisms.
Humans↗
Aftereffects of alcohol on the perception and control of pitch attitude during centripetal acceleration.
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Acceleration↗
Infant music perception: domain-general or domain-specific mechanisms?
We review the literature on infants' perception of pitch and temporal patterns, relating it to comparable research with human adult and non-human listeners. Although there are parallels in relative pitch processing across age and species, there are notable differences. Infants accomplish such tasks with ease, but non-human listeners require extensive training to achieve very modest levels of performance. In general, human listeners process auditory sequences in a holistic manner, and non-human listeners focus on absolute aspects of individual tones. Temporal grouping processes and categorization on the basis of rhythm are evident in non-human listeners and in human infants and adults. Although synchronization to sound patterns is thought to be uniquely human, tapping to music, synchronous firefly flashing, and other cyclic behaviors can be described by similar mathematical principles. We conclude that infants' music perception skills are a product of general perceptual mechanisms that are neither music- nor species-specific. Along with general-purpose mechanisms for the perceptual foundations of music, we suggest unique motivational mechanisms that can account for the perpetuation of musical behavior in all human societies.
Auditory Perception↗
Pulse rate matching by cochlear implant patients: effects of loudness randomization and electrode position.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the accuracy with which cochlear implant patients are able to match two stimuli on the basis of pulse rate pitch. DESIGN: Patients were required to adjust the pulse rate of a comparison stimulus to match that of a fixed reference stimulus. The comparison and the reference stimuli differed in loudness or were presented to different electrodes. RESULTS: Patients were able to match stimuli on the basis of pulse rate, with varying degrees of accuracy. Deviations from the target and the amount of variability were greater when stimuli were presented to different electrodes. The results also provide evidence regarding level-dependent pitch shifts. CONCLUSIONS: Because of methodological limitations, conclusions regarding pitch equivalence are limited. However, patients vary significantly in their ability to utilize temporal information.
Adult↗
Speech perception and talker segregation: effects of level, pitch, and tactile support with multiple simultaneous talkers.
Speech intelligibility was investigated by varying the number of interfering talkers, level, and mean pitch differences between target and interfering speech, and the presence of tactile support. In a first experiment the speech-reception threshold (SRT) for sentences was measured for a male talker against a background of one to eight interfering male talkers or speech noise. Speech was presented diotically and vibro-tactile support was given by presenting the low-pass-filtered signal (0-200 Hz) to the index finger. The benefit in the SRT resulting from tactile support ranged from 0 to 2.4 dB and was largest for one or two interfering talkers. A second experiment focused on masking effects of one interfering talker. The interference was the target talker's own voice with an increased mean pitch by 2, 4, 8, or 12 semitones. Level differences between target and interfering speech ranged from -16 to +4 dB. Results from measurements of correctly perceived words in sentences show an intelligibility increase of up to 27% due to tactile support. Performance gradually improves with increasing pitch difference. Louder target speech generally helps perception, but results for level differences are considerably dependent on pitch differences. Differences in performance between noise and speech maskers and between speech maskers with various mean pitches are explained by the effect of informational masking.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Multichannel place pitch sensitivity in cochlear implant recipients.
Cochlear implant recipients perceive a rise in pitch when the site of stimulation is moved from the apex toward the base. The place pitch sensitivity is typically measured using the stimulation of single channels. However, all current cochlear implant devices stimulate multiple channels simultaneously or with pulses temporally interleaved. The primary goal of the present study is to test whether the sensitivity of a cochlear implant recipient to changes in perceived pitch associated with changes of place of excitation improves or deteriorates when the number of active channels is increased, compared with stimulation with only one active channel. Place pitch sensitivity was recorded in four Nucleus CI24 subjects as a function of number of active channels (from 1 to 8). Just noticeable differences were estimated from a constant stimuli 2AFC pitch-ranking experiment with roving loudness. Reference and comparison stimuli contained the same number of active channels but were shifted one or two electrodes toward the base or toward the apex. The place pitch sensitivity was measured using monopolar stimulation at two locations along the electrode array. To minimize cues related to loudness, the multichannel stimuli were loudness balanced relative to the single-channel stimuli presented at C-level. The number of active channels did not affect place pitch sensitivity. This is consistent with a model that compares the edges of the excitation pattern irrespective of the overlap between excitation patterns. There was a significant difference in sensitivity to place pitch among subjects. The average just noticeable differences of place pitch, extrapolated from a fitting procedure, for the subjects ranged from 0.25 mm to 0.46 mm.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Perception of the periodicity strength of complex sounds by the chinchilla.
The perception of periodicity strength was studied in chinchillas using a stimulus generalization paradigm in an operant-conditioning, positive reinforcement behavioral task. Stimuli consisted of cosine-phase and random-phase harmonic complex tones, infinitely iterated rippled noises, and wideband noise. These stimuli vary in periodicity strength as measured by autocorrelation functions and are known to generate a continuum in the perception of pitch strength in human listeners. Chinchillas were trained to discriminate a cosine-phase harmonic tone complex from wideband noise and tested in the generalization paradigm using random-phase tone complexes and iterated rippled noises as probe stimuli. Chinchillas were tested in three different conditions in which the periods of the fundamental frequencies of the tone complexes were fixed at 2 ms, 4 ms, or 8 ms. Behavioral responses obtained from chinchillas were related to stimulus periodicity strength. For most animals, the behavioral responses to random-phase tone complexes were smaller than those to cosine-phase tone complexes. The behavioral responses were analyzed in terms of the Auditory Image Model of Patterson et al. [Patterson, R.D., Allerhand, M.H., Giguère, C., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 98 (1995) 1890-1894], and the results suggest that the periodicity information in the stimulus envelope has a large influence in controlling the behavioral response of the chinchilla. Comparison of the generalization data obtained in the present study to magnitude estimation data obtained previously in human subjects suggests a greater influence of stimulus envelope for the perception of periodicity strength in chinchillas than for the perception of pitch strength in human listeners.
Animals↗
What is the cochlear place code for pitch?
The advent of cochlear implants has increased the clinical interest in the cochlear code for pitch. It is widely believed that pitch is determined by the location of the excitation maximum in the cochlea. However, direct recordings from cochlear hair cells indicate that, for a given sound frequency, the location changes appreciably with sound intensity, whereas the corresponding pitch remains approximately constant. Correlated with this constancy is a surprising constancy of the location of the high-frequency cutoff of cochlear excitation.
Acoustics↗
Processing integral dimensions: the whole view.
In the traditional view, integral dimensions are said to be processed as unitary whole and only occasionally analyzed. Converging operations establish that (a) pitch and loudness and (b) hue, saturation, and brightness are true psychological dimensions and yet constitute integral dimensions in just this sense. Recent challenges provided by R. D. Melara, L. E. Marks, and their colleagues are shown to be based on narrow and faulty interpretations of evidence for privileged axes. They are also undermined by strong evidence of the holistic processing of pitch and loudness and of the dimensions of color that emerge within both their own data and the larger literature. The traditional view--including the strong claim that integrality entails mandatory holistic processing--continues to fare very well as an account of a substantial and varied set of findings.
Attention↗
The distinction between integral and separable dimensions: evidence for the integrality of pitch and loudness.
Six experiments are reported that investigated the reality and generality of dimensional integrality (Garner, 1974a) by evaluating whether the auditory dimensions of pitch and loudness are psychologically privileged and whether they combine in an integral fashion. In Experiment 1 we psychophysically scaled the dimensions to ensure that, within the stimulus range used, the perceived value on each dimension would remain constant in the face of variation on the other dimension. In Experiments 2 through 4 we assessed performance by using the converging operations by which Garner defined integrality and separability. Experiment 2 showed that in speeded classification, pitch and loudness lead to facilitation with redundant variation and interference with orthogonal variation. Experiment 3 showed that unspeeded classifications are guided predominantly by overall similarity. Experiment 4 established that the better-fitting metric by which multidimensional similarity is appreciated is Euclidean rather than city block. These results suggest that the dimensions of pitch and loudness combine in an integral fashion. In Experiments 5 and 6 we investigated whether the dimensions of pitch and loudness have a privileged status by assessing the impact of rotating the dimensional axes on performance in a speeded sorting task. Experiment 5 looked at six alternative dimensional orientations to pitch and loudness. If anything, rotating the dimensional axes increased the amount of interference in filtering. In Experiment 6 we assessed an alternative dimensional description of the stimuli based on the dimensions of volume and brightness. We found greater interference when the stimuli varied along the dimensions of volume and brightness than when they varied along the dimensions of pitch and loudness. The fact that the least interference is observed when the stimuli vary along the dimensions of pitch and loudness suggests that these dimensions are the more psychologically valid ones. These findings indicate that integrality is not a "myth," that is, merely a case of psychophysical mismatch. Instead, dimensions that are psychologically real are sometimes processed in a unitary fashion.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Simultaneous measurement of tinnitus pitch and loudness.
OBJECTIVE: Simultaneous measures of the frequency and level of a pure tone matching the predominant pitch and loudness of tinnitus were obtained using four interleaved staircases. DESIGN: Two staircases in a forced-choice procedure tracked two frequencies, one higher and one lower than the predominant pitch of the tinnitus, while two staircases tracked two levels, one louder and one softer than the tinnitus. RESULTS: The standard deviation of the pitch matches to tinnitus using the forced-choice procedure with four staircases (4SFC) exceeded that from a double staircase (2SFC) task in which the level of the matching tone was fixed, whereas the 2SFC and 4SFC tasks had similar SDs for loudness matches to tinnitus when the frequency of the matching tone was fixed and for matches to the pitch or loudness of external tones. As the level of the tone matching the tinnitus pitch in the 4SFC task increased relative to that of the 2SFC task, so did its frequency. CONCLUSION: These data may be interpreted as indicating that tinnitus is a fluctuant signal, and that matches of pure tones to tinnitus are not single-valued.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
The music of speech: music training facilitates pitch processing in both music and language.
The main aim of the present experiment was to determine whether extensive musical training facilitates pitch contour processing not only in music but also in language. We used a parametric manipulation of final notes' or words' fundamental frequency (F0), and we recorded behavioral and electrophysiological data to examine the precise time course of pitch processing. We compared professional musicians and nonmusicians. Results revealed that within both domains, musicians detected weak F0 manipulations better than nonmusicians. Moreover, F0 manipulations within both music and language elicited similar variations in brain electrical potentials, with overall shorter onset latency for musicians than for nonmusicians. Finally, the scalp distribution of an early negativity in the linguistic task varied with musical expertise, being largest over temporal sites bilaterally for musicians and largest centrally and over left temporal sites for nonmusicians. These results are taken as evidence that extensive musical training influences the perception of pitch contour in spoken language.
Adult↗
Tinnitus as a source of internal noise.
For 7 patients with sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus, pitch and loudness matches were made to the tinnitus. These matches were followed by measurement of three psychometric functions (probability of a correct response as a function of signal level) for pure tones, one in the presumed tinnitus region (i.e., at the average frequency matching the pitch of the tinnitus), one below the minimum frequency of the matches, and one above the maximum frequency of the matches. The data reveal that pitch-loudness matches are usually quite variable and that the slope of the psychometric function is flattest in the presumed tinnitus region. The first result is consistent with the idea that tinnitus is an unstable signal. The second result is consistent with the notion that the unstable tinnitus acts as a source of "internal" noise.
Hearing Loss, Sensorineural↗
The impact of anticipated action effects on action planning.
Three experiments with a total of 72 participants investigated the assumption that motor actions are planned in terms of their sensorial effects. Participants had to prepare a certain action A that consistently led to a sensorial effect (a tone of certain pitch). Instead of (in Experiment 1) or before (in Experiments 2 and 3) the execution of the prepared action, another response B had to be carried out, which either resulted in the same or in a different auditory effect (a tone of same or different pitch). It was found that a to-be-executed response B was in general initiated more quickly when it resulted in the same effect as a concurrently prepared response A. The results are considered as evidence for the basic notion that the preparation and initiation even of very simple actions is mediated by an anticipation of their reafferences.
Adolescent↗