Abstract
Listeners’ accuracy in discriminating one temporal pattern from another was measured in three psychophysical experiments. When the standard pattern consisted of equally timed (isochronic brief tones, whose interonset intervals (IOIs) were 50, 100, or 200 msec, the accuracy in detecting an asynchrony or deviation of one tone in the sequence was about as would be predicted from older research on the discrimination of single time intervals (6%–8% at an IOI of 200 msec, 11%–12% at an IOI of 100 msec, and almost 20% at an IOI of 50 msec). In a series of 6 or 10 tones, this accuracy was independent of position of delay for IOIs of 100 and 200 msec. At 50 msec, however, accuracy depended on position, being worst in initial positions and best in final positions. When one tone in a series of six has a frequency different from the others, there is some evidence (at IOI = 200 msec) that interval discrimination is relatively poorer for the tone with the different frequency. Similarly, even if all tones have the same frequency but one interval in the series is made twice as long as the others, temporal discrimination is poorer for the tones bordering the longer interval, although this result is dependent on tempo or 101. Results with these temporally more complex patterns may be interpreted in part by applying the relative Weber ratio to the intervals before and after the delayed tone. Alternatively, these experiments may show the influence of accent on the temporal discrimination of individual tones.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Abel, S. M. (1972). Duration discrimination of noise and tone bursts.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,51, 1219–1223.
Bharucha, J. J., &Pryor, J. H. (1986). Disrupting the isochrony underlying rhythm: An asymmetry in discrimination.Perception & Psychophysics,40, 137–141.
Creelman, C. D. (1962). Human discrimination of auditory duration.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,34, 582–593.
Divenyi, P. L., &Danner, W. F. (1977). Discrimination of time intervals marked by brief acoustic pulses of various intensities and spectra.Perception & Psychophysics,21, 125–142.
Fitzgibbons, P. J., Pollatsek, A., &Thomas, I. B. (1974). Detection of temporal gaps within and between perceptual tonal groups.Perception & Psychophysics,16, 522–528.
Fry, D. B. (1955). Duration and intensity as physical correlates of linguistic stress.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,35, 765–769.
Henry, F. M. (1948). Discrimination of the duration of a sound.Journal of Experimental Psychology,45, 734–743.
Hirsh, I. J. (1987). Timing in auditory perception.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,81(Suppl. 1), S90.
Killeen, P. R., &Weiss, N. A. (1987). Optimal timing and the Weber function.Psychological Review,94, 455–468.
Monahan, C. B., &Carterette, E. C. (1985). Pitch and duration as determinants of musical space.Music Perception,3, 1–32.
Monahan, C. B., Kendall, R. A., &Carterette, E. C. (1987). The effect of melodic and temporal contour on recognition memory for pitch change.Perception & Psychophysics,41, 576–600.
Pollack, I. (1967). Asynchrony: The perception of temporal gaps within auditory pulse patterns.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,42, 1335–1340.
Povel, D.-J., &Essens, P. (1985). Perception of temporal patterns.Music Perception,2, 411–440.
Povel, D.-J., &Okkerman, H. (1981). Accents in equitone sequences.Perception & Psychophysics,30, 565–572.
Small, A. M., &Campbell, R. A. (1962). Temporal differential sensitivity for auditory stimuli.American Journal of Psychology,75, 401–410.
Sorkin, R. D. (1987). Temporal factors in the discrimination of tonal sequences.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,82, 1218–1226.
Sorkin, R. D., Boggs, G. J., &Brady, S. L. (1982). Discrimination of temporal jitter in patterned sequences of tones.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Petformance,8, 46–57.
Thomassen, J. M. (1982). Melodic accent: Experiments and a tentative model.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,71, 1596–1605.
Umeda, N. (1975). Vowel duration in American English.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,58, 434–445.
Vos, P. G. (1977). Temporal duration factors in the perception of auditory rhythmic patterns.Scientific Aesthetics/Sciences de l’Art,1, 183–199.
Vos, P. G., &Troost, J. M. (1989). Ascending and descending melodic intervals: Statistical findings and their perceptual relevance.Music Perception,6, 383–396.
Watson, C. S., Wroton, H. W., Kelly, W. J., &Benbassat, C. A. (1975). Factors in the discrimination of tonal patterns: 1. Component frequency, temporal position and silent intervals.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,57, 1175–1185.
Woodrow, H. (1951). Time perception. In S. S. Stevens (Ed.),Handbook of experimental psychology (pp. 1224–1236). New York: Wiley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by a grant from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research to the Central Institute for the Deaf, and by Washington University, where Ira Hirsh is a Distinguished University Professor.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hirsh, I.J., Monahan, C.B., Grant, K.W. et al. Studies in auditory timing: 1. Simple patterns. Perception & Psychophysics 47, 215–226 (1990). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204997
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204997