Toonhoogte onderzoek in Nederland

Pitch research has always been considered as a very important part of psychoacoustics practiced in the Netherlands. So much even that it is sometimes said that, to a Dutch psychoacoustician, a pitch theory is equivalent with a hearing theory. This specific research interest is mostly due to important contributions by a few scientists, just before and after WW2, who were able to convey their thoughts and ideas to their students. Research concentrated on the perception of the so called missing fundamental, the fact that the pitch of harmonic complex tones is always deter mined by the fundamental frequency, no matter whether this frequency is physically present or not. The initial explanation of this phenomenon, expressed in the residue theory of J.F. Schouten was based on limited frequency resolution in the cochlea. This theory was ultimately proven to be inadequate by systematically gathered empirical evidence, and replaced by central, neural signal processing models. These models allowed computation of pitch by means of real-time computer algorithms, which was of essential value for experimental research on speech prosody and for the development of real-time voice pitch displays used in speech therapy. They also pro vide insight in the perceptual functioning of certain types of musical instruments.