Partial masking shifts pitch away from the masker’s spectral region

Evidence

Pitch shifts of pure tones can occur if additional sounds that produce partial masking are presented. In the demonstration, a pure tone with 2.7 kHz is partially masked by a narrow-band noise at 2 kHz, both with a level of 65 dB. First you will hear the pure tone alone, and then the tone plus noise. This sequence is repeated three times. When the tone is partially masked by the noise, the pitch is perceived to be higher. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 3275 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Figure 23.6 The sound trace for the transition region for the example audio file, 50HzMissingFund. Up to about 1.9 seconds, the sound is an ordinary complex 200 Hz tone with three partials, but after 2.1 seconds it has a partial every 50 Hz starting at 200 Hz and ending at 650 Hz. This latter progression has a 50 Hz frequency—four times smaller than the 200 Hz frequency at the beginning. This longer period can be seen in the trace after 2 seconds. A strong sensation of 50 Hz sound emerges as the new partials come in, but there is no 50, 100, or 150 Hz component at all. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2067 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Sound of a given frequency can block our ability to hear softer sounds at nearby frequencies, but distant frequencies are not affected. The threshold for detecting the softer sound is raised by the presence of a louder sound within the same critical bandwidth. Even if the softer sound is audible, it will not seem as loud as it would if played alone. Similarly, two tones that fall within the same critical bandwidth will appear to be less loud together than two tones of the same total energy that fall outside each others’ critical bandwidths. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2009 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Partially masking a tone shifts its perceived pitch upward — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 3275; Adding higher partials can drop the perceived pitch of a tone — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2067; Masking acts within critical bandwidths, leaving distant-frequency sounds unaffected — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2009

Related

• Partially masking a tone shifts its perceived pitch upward (similarity 0.95)
• Adding higher partials can drop the perceived pitch of a tone (similarity 0.90)
• Loudness changes shift perceived pitch; reverb conceals the effect musically (similarity 0.89)
• Partially masked sounds have a reduced loudness range in both time and spectrum (similarity 0.89)
• Masking acts within critical bandwidths, leaving distant-frequency sounds unaffected (similarity 0.89)
• Masked tones recover pitch strength as their level rises above masked threshold (similarity 0.88)
• Pitch shift magnitude correlates inversely with pitch strength of masked tones (similarity 0.88)
• Maskers below a tone raise its pitch while maskers above lower it. (similarity 0.88)
• Partial masking of a tone by background noise diminishes as tone level rises (similarity 0.86)
• Partial masking steepens the loudness function in a way that mirrors hearing recruitment (similarity 0.86)
• Masking spreads from a noise band to tones further away as masker level rises (similarity 0.86)
• Masking noise prevents listeners from using unintended spectral cues (similarity 0.85)
• Increasing stimulus level broadens auditory filters and causes upward spread of masking (similarity 0.85)
• Psychophysical tuning curves map masker level needed to just mask a fixed tone. (similarity 0.85)
• Loud tones can render simultaneous tones partially or wholly imperceptible (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Partially masking a tone shifts its perceived pitch upward #exemplifies (0.95) — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 3275
• Adding higher partials can drop the perceived pitch of a tone #contradicts (0.85) — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2067
• Masking acts within critical bandwidths, leaving distant-frequency sounds unaffected #expands (0.72) — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2009