ADDITIVITY OF PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL-CROSSING EFFECTS IN AUDITORY GAP DETECTION

Five normal listeners were tested in detail for their auditory gap-detection thresholds, using stimuli in which the narrow-band noise markers of the gap differed in one or both of two auditory dimensions (frequency composition and ear stimulated). Gap thresholds for stimuli in which the markers differed along either single dimension averaged about 18 ms, while thresholds for markers differing across both dimensions were closer to 28 ms. These data suggest that the perceptual relative-timing operation that mediates between-channel gap detection is shared across auditory dimensions.