Auditory grouping in lateralization, pitch, and vowel perception: A comparison of the effects of onset asynchrony and of mistuning
Chris J. Darwin, Nicholas I. Hill · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1993
This paper reviews the effect of two powerful cues to sound segregation, onset asynchrony and mistuning, in a number of different experimental paradigms. Although both cues substantially influence grouping in all three paradigms, there are quantitative differences across the paradigms. An onset asynchrony of a few tens of milliseconds is sufficient to allow listeners to hear out a single low-numbered harmonic from a complex and for it to be lateralized largely independently of the other harmonics. It is also enough to remove that harmonic from the calculation of vowel quality. But a substantially greater asynchrony (over 100 ms) is needed in order to remove a single (mistuned) harmonic from a complex for the purpose of calculating its pitch. When a single low-numbered harmonic is mistuned, a mistuning of less than 1% is generally sufficient to allow it to be heard out. At about 3% mistuning, the mistuned harmonic can be lateralized largely independently of the other harmonics, but will still make a full contribution to the pitch and the vowel quality of the complex. A substantially reduced contribution both to the vowel quality and to the pitch of the complex requires a larger mistuning—around 8%. [Work supported by UK SERC & MRC.]