Pitch Shifts Accompanying Certain Auditory Threshold Shifts
John C. Webster, Earl D. Schubert · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1954
A method was developed for getting a continuous and running record of pitch matches between the two ears, using (1) the sychronized frequency- and paper-drive features of a “Bekesy” type audiometer and (2) the subject's adjustment of the frequency knob of a second oscillator to drive the recording pen. A one-second tone from the motor-driven (standard) oscillator (controlling the paper drive) is presented to one ear and a two-second tone from the subject's (variable) oscillator (controlling the pen writing mechanism) is presented alternately to the other ear. The subject, who controls the frequency of the variable tone, is instructed to keep the two alternating tones matched in pitch. Ten music students made these pitch matches (90 matches per octave) from 150 to 9600 cps. In the ear in which the standard tone was heard various types and amounts of hearing loss were simulated by masking noises. The pitch tended to shift away from a region of hearing loss to a region of no, or less hearing loss. Downward shifts were observed but were never as marked as the upward shifts.