ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we will deal with several attributes of sounds grossly classified as pitch, along with several associated topics. Like “loudness,” the word “pitch” denotes a perception with which we are all familiar. Pitch is generally described as the psychological correlate of frequency, such that high-frequency tones are heard as being “high” in pitch and low frequencies are associated with “low” pitches (ANSI, 2004). However, we saw in Chapter 9 that not all changes in frequency are perceptible. Instead, a certain amount of frequency change is needed before the difference limen (DL) is reached. In other words, the frequency difference between two tones must be at least equal to the DL before they are heard as being different in pitch. Moreover, we shall see that pitch does not follow frequency in a simple, one-to-one manner along a monotonic scale from low to high. Instead, the perception of pitch appears to be multifaceted, and it may be that there are various kinds of pitch. In addition, although we know that pitch involves both the place and temporal mechanisms of frequency coding discussed in earlier chapters, the precise interaction of frequency and temporal coding is not fully resolved.
