ABSTRACT
The ability to extract information about relationships between frequency components in complex sounds may be of fundamental importance in auditory perception. The present set of experiments attempts to assess this ability in a situation for which the observer must compare the frequencies within a complex in order to successfully discriminate between different complexes. Specifically, the observer is required to discriminate between two-tone complexes which differ, on the average, only in the ratio of the frequencies of the two simultaneously presented components. The data indicate that relatively small changes in frequency ratios can be discriminated: thresholds are similar to those for simple frequency discrimination measured under conditions of comparable frequency uncertainty. They are also similar to those shown by trained musicians in discrimination of musical intervals when the two tones comprising the interval are presented successively.
