SCALING OF PITCH STRENGTH

Pitch strength of the following equally loud sounds was scaled by magnitude estimation procedures: pure and complex tones, band-pass filtered complex tones, AM-tones, low-pass, high-pass and band-pass noise, comb-filtered noise, AM-noise and Zwicker-tone. At the test frequencies 125, 250 and 500 Hz pure tones were assigned a pitch strength of 100%. Relative to this value spectral pitches reach 100-75%, virtual pitches 50% and noise pitches 25-0% pitch strength. At 125 and 250 Hz no consistent data were found for the Zwicker-tone, while at 500 Hz it elicits on the average the same pitch strength as a pure tone (100%). Implications concerning pitch mechanisms would seem to suggest a prevalence of the 'place principle' in comparison to the 'time principle'. © 1979.