Auditory grouping based on fundamental frequency and formant peak frequency.

Studied the perceptual grouping of a 4-tone cycle as a function of differences in fundamental frequencies and the freqencies of spectral peaks. Each tone had a single formant and at least 13 harmonics. In Exp 1, the formant was created by filtering a flat spectrum and in Exp 2 by adding harmonics. Fundamental frequency was found to be capable of controlling grouping even when the spectra spanned exactly the same frequency range. Formant peak separation became more effective as the sharpness increased. The effect of each type of acoustic difference depended on the task. Ss could group the tones by either sort of difference but were also capable of resisting the disruptive effect of the other one. This supports the presence of a schema-based process of perceptual grouping and the relative weakness of primitive segregation. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)