Effects of conflicting spatial and pitch cues on timing judgments in auditory sequences

Feature integration is necessary for parsing complex auditory environments. To perceive or identify auditory objects or sound sources, listeners integrate acoustic features such as pitch, spatial location, and onset timing as auditory events unfold. One example of how stimulus features bias auditory perception is the auditory kappa effect, where changes in pitch bias the perceived onset timing among sequential sounds. Larger changes in pitch between tones are perceived as longer time intervals. Our recent work has extended this effect from pitch to physical space, demonstrating that sounds traversing greater spatial distances were perceived as farther apart in time than sounds presented closer together. Together, these studies raise the question of whether pitch and spatial cues interact with bias timing judgments. In the present study, participants heard sequences of three harmonic complex tones that changed in pitch and location and reported the relative time intervals between tones. Pitch changes were presented either congruently with spatial location (e.g., larger pitch differences paired with farther distance in space) or incongruently (e.g., smaller pitch changes paired with farther distance in space). Results will be discussed in terms of competing influences of pitch and spatial cues on timing judgments. [Funding: HHF ERG (AHM), NIH F32DC022162 (CK)]