Gap detection measures only on-off discrimination and misses fluctuation-rate coding

Evidence

In summary, then, gap detection experiments provide an intuitive way to measure temporal resolution. They are limited in their scope of measuring temporal processing, however, because only a single threshold value is obtained. Thus, they only reflect the ability to detect whether a stimulus is “on” or “off” and are not sensitive to the ability of the ear to code for different stimulus fluctuation rates. Furthermore, the thresholds themselves depend on the frequency span of the stimulus, and a fully audible stimulus is needed in order to obtain the best gap detection thresholds. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 980

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• QUESTION: What alternative tasks do capture fluctuation-rate coding? The next section on narrowband noises begins to answer this.

Related

• Gap detection measures only on-off sensitivity, not coding of fluctuation rates. (similarity 0.94)
• Gap detection offers quick but shallow measures of temporal acuity (similarity 0.85)
• Gap detection tasks measure how the ear follows temporal changes relevant to communication (similarity 0.85)
• Gap detection thresholds improve with increasing stimulus bandwidth but not frequency region (similarity 0.85)
• Tones confound gap detection with spectral-change detection. (similarity 0.84)
• Gap detection thresholds improve sharply with level up to about 30 dB SL (similarity 0.84)
• Stimulus fluctuations hurt gap detection but aid speech perception elsewhere (similarity 0.83)
• Wider stimulus bandwidths improve listeners’ ability to detect temporal gaps (similarity 0.83)
• Brief quiet gaps in sounds can introduce spectral cues that contaminate gap detection results (similarity 0.83)
• Gap detection acuity improves with presentation level up to about 30 dB SL. (similarity 0.83)
• Narrowband noises fluctuate more than wideband stimuli, making them useful for studying fluctuation coding (similarity 0.82)
• Gap added to a tone creates audible spectral splatter or side lobes. (similarity 0.82)
• Gap detection measures the smallest audible silent gap (similarity 0.82)
• Gap detection experiments vary in whether listeners report a gap or count of sounds (similarity 0.82)
• Temporal gap detection thresholds are measured with a three-alternative forced-choice task (similarity 0.81)