PITCH OF A SEQUENCE OF 2 SHORT TONES AND THE CRITICAL PAUSE DURATION

Pitch of ''tone doublets'' (TDs), of a sequence of two identical short tones separated by a pause, was examined. The values of carrier frequ encies, f(c), of the tones were between 750 Hz and 1250 Hz. Each of th e two tones consisted of eight periods. By changing the duration of th e pause it was possible to obtain TDs with spectral maxima above (type TDA), below (type TDB) and at (type TDC) the f(c). Subjects adjusted frequency (denoted here as f(p)) of a 300 ms long tone to match the pi tch of the TDs. The medians of frequencies f(p) of pitch matches for t he TDAs were higher than of the f(p)s for the TDBs. The difference in the medians for the two types of TDs indicated that pitch was related to the spectra of the TDs. However, the medians of f(p)s for the TDAs and TDBs were not at the main maxima of their spectra. The f(p) of TDA s was around f(c) and the pitch of TDBs was shifted toward lower frequ encies, between the spectral main maxima and the f(c). The pitch match es for types TDA and TDB were apart up to the pause duration of 8 ms, and converged at the 16 ms pause. This seemed to indicate that there w as a critical duration of the pause that separated the auditory proces sing of the two tones of the TDs and that that pause was between 8 and 16 ms long.