Discrimination of Mean Temporal Interval within Jittered Auditory Pulse Trains

Thresholds for the auditory discrimination of mean interpulse interval were determined as a function of the number of intervals and of temporal variability, or “jitter.” Interval discrimination at low pulse frequencies is relatively independent of the number of pulses and of jitter. By contrast, interval discrimination at high pulse frequencies is extremely dependent upon the number of pulses and the level of jitter. The precision of interval discrimination achieved suggests that pulse interval discrimination for high pulse frequencies is carried out by a spectral analysis, rather than by a temporal analysis, of auditory information.