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In contrast to the extremely acute sensitivity of a human listener to discriminate small differences in the frequency or intensity between two sounds is his relative inability to identify (and name) sounds presented individually. When the frequency of a single tone is varied in equal-logarithmic steps in the range between 100 cps and 8000 cps (and when the level of the tone is randomly adjusted to reduce loudness cues), the amount of information transferred is about 2.3 bits per stimulus presentation. This is equivalent to perfect identification among only 5 tones. The information transferred, under the conditions of measurement employed, is reasonably invariant under wide variations in stimulus conditions.
Irwin Pollack (Sat,) studied this question.