Perceptual pitch shift for sounds with similar waveform autocorrelation

Abstract

Sequences of clicks comprising a dominant regular interval were investigated psychophysically. The first sequence pattern consisted of one regular interclick interval followed by two random intervals. The second sequence pattern consisted of one regular interval with a randomly interspersed click, followed by a single random interval. These stimuli had a single normalized autocorrelation peak of identical height at the regular interval. They were also equated in average rate. In a pitch matching experiment, the stimuli were found to have different pitches even though the regular interval was identical. The pitch shift persisted when the stimuli were high-pass filtered at 3 or 6 kHz and low-pass noise was added. The combined effects of auditory filtering and hair-cell transduction provide a possible basis for this perceptual shift. This emphasizes the need for physiologically-based models for pitch perception. © 2001 Acoustical Society of America.