Inserting a temporal gap into a stimulus produces spectral splatter at the gap edges

Evidence

Anyone interested in evaluating temporal processing must be mindful of the relationship between the waveform and spectrum — ​ changes to the temporal characteristics of a stimulus can lead to changes in the spectrum, just as the reverse can occur. An example we have already discussed is the time-frequency trade-off: Sounds cannot be brief in time as well as frequency specific. Shortening a sound will lead to additional frequencies present in the sound (i.e., spectral splatter). Applying this same concept to gap detection, abruptly stopping and starting a sound, as might happen when a gap is inserted into a stimulus, can also produce spectral splatter. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 953

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines spectral splatter and its source in the time-frequency trade-off, connecting temporal processing to the uncertainty principle.
• XREF: The time-frequency trade-off recalls the Heisenberg uncertainty principle logic from physics and could connect to how resolution limits structure any measurement system.