A signal-detection-theory measure of pitch shifts in sinusoids as a function of intensity.

Pitch shifts in sinusoids as a function of intensity result in systematic response biases and differences in performance in forced-choice frequency-discrimination tasks. Two approaches are described for converting these effects to a measure of pitch shift in Hz using standard signal-detection-theory assumptions. To illustrate these approaches, forced-choice frequency-discrimination data were obtained for three listeners at 250 and 4000 Hz, with six intensities from 40 to 90 dB SPL. The resulting pitch-shift estimates are in good agreement with adjustment data obtained from the same listeners. Collection and analysis of the forced-choice data can be greatly simplified by using an adaptive procedure. Pitch-shift estimates obtained in this way for two of the three listeners are in good agreement with the other estimates.