Discrimination of the order of the components of repeating tone sequences: Effects of frequency separation and extensive practice

Abstract

The Ss' task was to identify repeating sequences of pure tones that differed only with respect to the order in which the tones occurred. With tones occurring at a constant rate of 5/sec, performance was better when the tones were widely spaced in frequency than when they were less widely spaced. One S was able, after considerable practice, to distinguish among different sequences whose component tones were presented at rates up to 500/sec. It was tenatively concluded that, in this case, performance was based on temporal (order) information at the slowest presentation rates, primarily on spectral information at the highest rates, and on both order and spectral information at intermediate rates. © 1974 Psychonomic Society, Inc.