Quantifying Pitch--Logarithms

• We have seen several times so far that what we perceive is not necessarily the physical reality.

• This is true with pitch: though connected to period and frequency of signals, it is not fully described by fundamental frequency.

• How do we quantify the perceptual attribute of pitch?

• Gustav Fechner (1873): the perceived quality of a stimulus could be different from the way it is specified physically.
  • perceived quantity is often a logarithmic transformation of the physical quantity.