Discrimination of second-formant-like frequency transitions

Abstract

Discrimination of two types of simulated single-second-formant frequency transitions was studied, transitions where members of a stimulus set shared the same onset frequency and transitions where stimuli of a set ahared the same offset frequency. Experiment 1 employed an adaptive procedure to measure just-noticeable differences for transitions that increased in frequency. Experiment 2 obtained complete psychometrie functions, based on a three-interval, forced-choice procedure, for transitions that either increased or decreased in frequency. In both experiments, better discrimination occurred for longer stimuli, measured in hertz/millisecond, and for transitions that shared the same onset frequency. There were no differences, in Experiment 2, between discrimination of rising and falling transitions, Results are considered from several theoretical perspectives.

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“…Figure 2.3 illustrates three main (and statistically significant) findings for the condition in which endpoint frequency varies at a fixed duration for different stimulus types. First, discrimination improves with increasing duration for all types of transitions (see also Elliott, Hammer, & Carrell, 1991;Elliott, Hammer, Scholl, Carrell, & Wasowicz, 1989;Porter, Cullen, Collins, & Jackson, 1991). This is probably because the less the formant frequency changes spectrally, the easier it is to detect a change in (endpoint) frequency.…”