Sensitivity to the elements of pure-tone auditory dyads.
Judgments of 15 college students for the presence of one or two tones in a dyad were obtained while both the distance between frequencies (from 129--258 to 488--976 c/s) and the musical interval (from Octaves to Major Thirds) were independently changed. When the critical bands of the constituent tones mainly overlapped, the percentage of correct responses was high and depended primarily upon the distance between frequencies as opposed to the musical interval. Percentage of correct responses decreased with the size of the interval when there was no encroachment of critical bands. It was concluded that critical-band theory could readily explain the data: when critical bands overlap, Ss used the presence of "roughness" to judge that the stimulus contained two tones; when there was no critical band overlap, there was no roughness and Ss had to analyze the tones separately. This was more difficult than simply listening for roughness, and the percentage of errors increased in consequence.
D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D010898:Pitch Perception