Frequency Discrimination of Pure and Complex Tones
Lawrence R. Zeitlin · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1964
Utilizing the method of constant stimuli, subjects performed significantly better in discriminating small changes of frequency of complex tones (15-μsec pulse length) than in discriminating similar changes of frequency of pure tones. This difference was obtained at the 6 base frequencies used in this experiment, 190, 490, 990, 1500, 3000, and 6000 cps. The superior performance with complex tones was attributed to the presence of overtones, which made the discrimination task much easier. The maximum efficiency of subjects in discriminating frequency changes in the complex tones occurred between 490 and 990 cps.