Saltation in pitch perception

Sensory saltation is a spatiotemporal illusion in which the location of a brief stimulus is displaced towards a subsequent one following closely in time and space. This study investigated in three experiments whether or not saltation is present in spectral pitch, a non-spatial dimension. Employing the “symmetrical-rabbit” paradigm, listeners judged the continuity of sequences of six short tones, differing in pitch (Exp. 1). Furthermore, the “reduced-rabbit” paradigm consisting of only three short tones was used in combination with an objective two-alternative forced-choice task (Exp. 2) and a subjective judgment task (Exp. 3). All findings indicated displacements in pitch towards subsequent tones when the interstimulus interval between the tones was short, and the frequency separation was small. This suggests a saltation-like illusion for non-spatial stimulus parameters. Possible explanations are discussed in view of the supramodal characteristic of the phenomenon.