Helmholtz’s place theory says pitch derives from the basilar membrane’s location of maximum excitation.

Evidence

Helmholtz’s version of the place code is elegant, simple, and straightforward to understand. He believed that the pitch of a stimulus was determined from the place of maximum excitation in the cochlea. A pure tone evoked a pitch because there was a location on the basilar membrane that coded for the frequency of that pure tone. Thus, because tones of different frequencies stimulated different basilar membrane locations, different pitches were perceived. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1199

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out the classical Helmholtz place theory of pitch, the baseline model the rest of the chapter tests against.