Perceived Rate of Dichotically Alternated Clicks
A. W. F. Huggins · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1969
A train of pulses in which successive pulses are presented alternately to the left and right ears can be perceived only as a series of discrete pulses when the repetition rate is low. At faster rates, two identical but nonsynchronized pulse trains are perceived, one at each ear. The switch from one percept to the other is quite sharp. Subjects adjusted a binaural train until its repetition rate sounded most like the total rate of an alternated train, for 16 rates log-spaced between 1.5 and 48 pps. Each subject made 16 matches of each rate. When pulses in the alternated train were separated by less than about 70 msec (i.e., 140 msec for successive pulses in one ear), subjects matched the rate of the train in each ear. When pulses were separated by more than about 120 msec, subjects matched the total rate, in pulses-into-the-head per second. The results are discussed in relation to results on the perception of alternated and interrupted speech. [Supported in part by National Institutes of Health.]