On the pitches of the components of a complex tone

Abstract

The pitches of the harmonics (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 11) of a complex tone were measured in a matching experiment. The harmonics to be matched were mistuned (8% or less) either positively, or negatively, or not at all. For all mistuned harmonics and all listeners the matching pitches were found to be exaggerations of the mistunings, i.e., the data exhibited pitch shifts with the same sign as the mistunings. This result is shown to be contrary to place models of pitch perception, such as the spectral pitch algorithm of Terhardt, in which pitch shifts are caused by the interaction of excitation patterns for the individual harmonics. An alternative model, in which pitch is determined by neural timing, also fails to account for the data. However, a hybrid model, combining effects of excitation pattern interaction with neural timing, does agree with most of the data.