Temporal asynchrony of less than one-half cycle can be detected in harmonic complexes

In previous experiments on asynchrony detection in multicomponent complexes [Zera and Green, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 93, 1038–1052, 1571–1579 (1993)], stimuli in which each component began or terminated at a zero crossing of the sine waveform were employed. Thus, the measurable range of asynchrony for a given component was limited to values larger than one-half the component period. In this experiment, the zero-crossing restriction is relaxed and the results show that the listeners’ asynchrony thresholds lie between 0.1 and 0.5 of the signal period for the conditions most favorable to the detection of asynchrony, namely, a harmonic complex with the asynchrony occurring at onset.