Tone bursts are heard as longer than pauses of equal physical length

Evidence

The subjective durations of bursts and pauses are compared. A short tone burst is followed by two longer bursts which are seperated by a pause of variable duration. In the first sequence, the short burst and the pause both have a length of 150 ms, but the pause seems too short. In the second sequence, the burst and the pause have a length of 40 ms, and again the pause seems too short. In the third sequence, the burst has a length of 40 ms and the pause is 150 ms long. Now the perceived duration of burst and pause is about equal. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 3345

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to time-perception literature, e.g. filled vs empty interval duration illusions studied in psychology. — connects to: A 100 ms tone burst and a 400 ms pause feel equally long; Sounds shorter than 200 ms are perceived as longer than they are
• SEED: Could feed an essay on how musicians’ notated rhythms systematically misjudge perceived pause lengths.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 3345

Broader Connections

• Sounds shorter than 200 ms are perceived as longer than they are #corroborates (0.85)