The influence of spectral composition of complex tones and of musical experience on the perceptibility of virtual pitch

Abstract

A matching paradigm was used to evaluate the influence of the spectral characteristics number, relative height, and density of harmonics on the perceptibility of the missing fundamental. Fifty-eight musicians and 58 nonmusicians were instructed to adjust mistuned sinusoids to the subjectively perceived fundamental pitches of corresponding overtone spectra. Analyses of variance were used to compare the average of absolute and relative deviations of the tunings from the highest common divisors of the complex tones. The results indicate that musical experience is the most influential single factor determining the assessment of fundamental pitch. Nevertheless, all spectral parameters significantly affect tuning performance. Systematic relative deviations (stretching/compression effects) were observed for all considered variables. An increase of the optimum subjective distance between an overtone spectrum and its corresponding fundamental was characteristic of musicians and unambiguous spectra, whereas the compression effect was typical of nonmusicians and complex tones containing spectral gaps. © 1993 Psychonomic Society, Inc.