Re: [Re: [1/32 of tone]]

Carl Lumma <clumma@nni.com> wrote:
> From: Carl Lumma <clumma@nni.com><br><br>>The source for my above assertion
is _Psychology of Music_ by Carl Seashore,<br>>pp. 56-62, McGraw-Hill 1938.
First, he defines the standard test for pitch<br>>discrimination as having a
stimulus of "sound[ing] two notes, each of<br>which is<br>>one second in
duration but differing in pitch and separated by a very short<br>>interval of
time". He cites a study by Strucker, Zsch. Sinnesphysiol., XLII,<br>>1908,
where the pitch discrimination of 16 professional musicians in
the<br>Royal<br>>Opera in Vienna was measured (at 435 Hz). Four of the
subjects discriminated<br>>less than one cent, and five others within two
cents (one cent at 435 Hz is<br>>very nearly 0.25 Hz). Figure 1, page 60,
also shows that pitch<br>discrimination<br>>is actually about twice as fine at
2000 Hz as for 435 Hz.<br><br>Fred, do you know if this was done with pure
tones, or...?

Seashore's discussion of measurement of pitch discrimination, just preceding
his citation of the Stucker experiment, is clearly restricted to pure tones -
either tuning fork/resonator devices or electr[on]ic oscillators. So, I would
infer that the Stucker measurements were made with pure tones.

Fred

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