Influence of peripheral resolvability on the perceptual segregation of harmonic complex tones differing in fundamental frequency

Two experiments investigated the influence of resolvability on the perceptu al organization of sequential harmonic complexes differing in fundamental f requency (F0). Using a constant-stimuli method, streaming scores for ABA-.. . sequences of harmonic complexes were measured as a function of the F0 dif ference between the A and B tones. In the first experiment, streaming score s were measured for harmonic complexes having two different nominal F0s (88 and 250 Hz) and filtered in three frequency regions (a LOW, a MID, and a H IGH region with corner frequencies of 125-625 Hz, 1375-1875 Hz, and 3900-54 00 Hz, respectively). Some streaming was observed in the HIGH region tin wh ich the harmonics were always unresolved) but streaming scores remained gen erally lower than in the LOW and MID regions. The second experiment verifie d that the streaming observed in the HIGH region was not due to the use of distortion products. Overall, the results indicated that although streaming can occur in the absence of spectral cues, the degree of resolvability of the harmonics has a significant influence. (C) 2000 Acoustical Society of A merica. [S0001-4966(00)02807-1].