Human Discrimination of Auditory Duration

Abstract

A series of experiments measured human ability to discriminate between durations of auditory signals presented in a noise background. Independent variables were the signal voltage, the "base" duration T, and the increment duration/xT. Separate experiments assessed the effect of each of these on discrimination.A decision-theoretical model is presented, based on a "counting mechanism," which operates on impulses generated over the relevant durations. The source of these impulses is assumed to be random. Limitations on performance come from uncertainty regarding the end points of the time interval and from limited memory. The decision processes underlying the model are presented as a general theory of duration discrimination. HESE experiments measured the ability of human observers to discriminate differences in duration between short auditory signals. An understanding of time judgment is important for theories of signal detection, since detection depends on attention during the time of the signal, and only during that time. A practical problem related to temporal discrimination arises in speech perception, where cues to linguistic meaning in some languages, and cues to stress and inflection in English, seem to depend on relative duration (cf. Peterson and Lehiste•). A quantitative theory of temporal discrimination is developed to account for discrimination in the range ordinarily covered by speech sounds and the signals used in psychoacoustic experiments.The study of time discrimination is a poor stepchild of the growth of psychophysical research. Titchener 2 characterized the area as a "microcosm, perfect to the last detail," exemplifying in miniature the course of development to that time of psychophysical methods, concepts, and empirical knowledge. Study of temporal discrimination, and the estimation of time, has remained a microcosm, somewhat isolated from the main stream of empirical research on sensory capacities.A reason for this neglect was pointed out by Nichols a in an early, scholarly, historical review of the philosophy and psychology of time. This was the problematic status of the "time sense" as an independent psychic faculty, aside from the content of sensory input. The question has not yet been resolved, and continues to haunt the researches and theoretical efforts of psychologists.Reviews of the experimental literature after Nichols' were presented by Dunlap, . et al., 7 and most recently by Wallace and Rabin. 8 Chapters on time perception were offered by Titchener, 2 by Boring, 9 and by Woodrow. •ø With all this activity, we still find that there is "... as yet no generally accepted view as to how we perceive or estimate time, "7 and fourteen years later we find ourselves still on the trail of the "hitherto elusive 'time sense'. ,,s Although an experiment by Stott n was primarily concerned with the analysis of "time errors," enough data were reported to draw some conclusions about the temporal sensitivity of his observers. The observations were made in a group setting, and the data were averaged o...

Shortening of subjective tone intervals followed by repetitive tone stimuli

“…As was noted in the introduction, the internal pacemaker account (Creelman, 1962;Treisman, 1963) predicts that subjective time intervals should become longer as the rate of repetitive presentation becomes higher. In a clear departure from this prediction, our study shows that subjective time intervals became shorter as the frequency of repetitive stimuli increased.…”

“…It is generally accepted that pulses from an internal clock are accumulated during a time interval to be estimated (Creelman, 1962;Treisman, 1963). We propose that, in addition, the pulse count in a working memory is further normalized by the current frequency of the internal pacemaker.…”

“…Duration of a rapid series of tones (Burle & Bonnet, 1997;Burle & Casini, 2001;Ortega & López, 2008) or duration of a series of flickering visual stimuli (Kanai, Paffen, Hogendoorn, & Verstraten, 2006) themselves are perceived as being longer than that of a static stimulus of the same duration. To explain these changes in time perception, researchers generally hypothesize that some kind of internal pacemaker (Creelman, 1962;Treisman, 1963) is accelerated by the repetitive stimulation. Acceleration of the pacemaker leads to an increase in pulse counts during a given period, which eventually leads to a stretch in time perception.…”

How do changes in speed affect the perception of duration?

“…Many models assume that time perception is based on some kind of counting or accumulation process (e.g., Creelman, 1963;Gibbon et al, 1984;Killeen & Weiss, 1987;Treisman, 1963;Treisman et al, 1990). There is usually assumed to be an internal pacemaker or oscillator which emits counts or pulses; stimulus timing involves counting the number of pulses which occur during the to-be-timed interval.…”

Tempo sensitivity in auditory sequences: Evidence for a multiple-look model

“…The psychoacousticalliterature on time perception suggests that when subjects are asked to compare two intervals (empty or filled by a sound) they are able to say which is longer or shorter when there is a difference of at least 6% to 10% of the standard duration (Abel, 1972;Allen, 1979;Creelman, 1962;Getty, 1975Getty, , 1976Small & Campbell, 1962;Woodrow, 1951). This is true within a range of 200-2,000 msec, and the actual precision depends on many different factors, in particular the method used and the physical characteristics of the events marking the intervals.…”