ISCA Archive Eurospeech 1997
ISCA Archive Eurospeech 1997

Missing fundamentals: a problem of auditory or mental processing?

Henning Reetz

Subjects were presented with signal pairs with different musical intervals. Signals were sine tones, complex tones with a fundamental, and complex tones without a fundamental. Subjects had to decide, which signal pairs form a specific musical interval. Reaction times indicate that the perception of the 'missing fundamental' is a sort of musical processing and not necessarily a part of normal auditory processing in pitch perception.