Re: pitch shift with age

[Pierre Divenyi <pdivenyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The fact that pitch shift occurs also for virtual pitch/missing
fundamental makes the cochlear explanation essentially useless or, at the
least, severely incomplete. An alternative explanation proposed (sorry, I
don't have the reference at this moment -- maybe someone does?) tied the
phenomenon to the well-documented general "slowing down" of
nerve activity with age (Birren, J. E.
& Fisher, L. M., Annual Review Psychology 46 [1995]). 

My own experience with this phenomenon has been pretty dramatic: I once
had AP (less than 1% error) and currently misjudge a pitch by as much as
a whole tone.

Pierre Divenyi

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Pierre Divenyi             Experimental Audiology Research (151)

                                     V.A. Medical Center, Martinez, CA 94553, USA

Phone: (925) 370-6745;     Fax: (925) 228-5738

E-mail :                   PDivenyi@ucdavis.edu

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