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🪵 The Threshold

Human pitch discrimination far exceeds the ear's filter resolution

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tagsja-picks, definitional_content, corroborated, xref, define, question, factual_claims, trade, category/definitional-content
aliases@heller_why_2013, loc. 880

2 min read

Human pitch discrimination far exceeds the ear’s filter resolution

Evidence

Psychoacoustically, the ability to discriminate between sounds that are nearly the same except for a change in one aspect (f0, intensity, duration, etc.) is measured as a “difference limen” (DL), or “just noticeable differ­ ence” (JND). JND is preferred in this book. The JND for human pitch per­ ception is shown graphically in Figure 3.8 along with the critical bandwidth curve. This JND graph is based on an experiment by Zwicker et al. (1957) in which sinusoidal stimuli were used (fixed waveshape) and the sound intensity level and sound duration remained constant. It turns out that the JND is approximately one thirtieth of the critical bandwidth across the hearing range. Musically, this is equivalent to approximately one twelfth of a semitone. Thus the JND in pitch is much smaller than the resolution of the analysis filters (critical bandwidth). — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 880

Categorization

  • DEFINE: Defines difference limen / just noticeable difference as the standard measure of pitch discrimination ability.
  • QUESTION: If the JND is far finer than filter resolution, what mechanism accounts for such acute pitch discrimination? The unresolved tension drives the temporal-theory discussion to come.
  • corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 880
  • XREF: connects to: Frequency discrimination stems from steep filter slopes plus 1 dB level sensitivity — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1143; Speech discrimination requires intact frequency resolution; The central debate in pitch perception is whether humans are essentially walking Fourier analyzers (+5 more)

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