Perceptual thresholds and tonal categories

A discussion of tonal categories relating to pitch perception discrimination thresholds focuses on the differences between pitch perception per se and the perception of tonal timing. In the light of several experimental studies on the perception of tonal timing categories in different languages, it is hypothesized that the perception of level tones can be related to the highly acute psychophysical pitch discrimination ability of human listeners, while the perception of differences in tonal timing is a more complicated process relying on the perception of tonal movement, cognitive categorization strategies and the use of short term memory.