Pitch of synthetic sung vowels

Experiments a r e reported in which ~xus ica l ly trained subjects ~ i a t c h the pitch of zl. stimulus tone with a var iablc response tone, both tones being synthesis of a sung vo\vel. The effects on pitch and pitch perception ac curacy of vibratos of different kinds and tile ' singing formant' a r e examined. The resul t s appear to show that the pitch corresponds to the average fundamental frequency to the f i r s t approximation eventhough deviations from this average occur that may be explained by postulating a time constant in the fundamental frequency measuring system of the ea r . Adding I a vibrato or a ' singing formant ' to a voxel sound affects neither the pitch perceived nor the accuracy of the pitch perception appreciably. Thc standard deviatioii value s obtained f rom tilc exper i r i~ents a r e considerably smaller than the difference limen for f r e q ~ e n c y probably owing to the subjects' training and to the fact that complex waveforms were used in the experixeiits.