Virtual pitch and phase sensitivity of a computer model of the auditory periphery. II: Phase sensitivity

Abstract

In a companion article [Meddis and Hewitt, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 89, 2866–2882 (1991)] it was shown that a computational model of the auditory periphery followed by a system of autocorrelation analyses was able to account for a wide range of human virtual pitch perception phenomena. In this article it is shown that the same model, with no substantial modification, can predict a number of results concerning human sensitivity to phase relationships among harmonic components of tone complexes. The model is successfully evaluated using (a) amplitude-modulated and quasifrequency-modulated stimuli, (b) harmonic complexes with alternating phase change and monotonic phase change across harmonic components, and (c) mistuned harmonics. The model is contrasted with phase-insensitive theories of low-level auditory processing and offered as further evidence in favor of the value of analysing time intervals among spikes in the auditory nerve when explaining psychophysical phenomena.