Peripheral transduction may involve the following: (1) the pressure waveform undergoes a first‐derivative transform on the basilar membrane, and (2) the amplitude pattern on the membrane is isomorphically represented by the auditory fiber activity; i.e., the post‐stimulus histogram maintains the shape of the stimulus. Psychoacoustic “centering” experiments should therefore give results consistent with a first‐derivative analysis. Trained subjects listened to pairs of 1000‐Hz low‐pass transients whose members differed in polarity, amplitude, or both. Centering results were in the form of time separations between members of a dichotic pair. With these time separations preserved, stimulus waveforms were later differentiated (giving first‐derivative transforms) and viewed on an oscilloscope and photographed. (These transformed pairs now represented the displacements on the two basilar membranes and the neural patterns that earlier yielded a judgement of center.) Only the rarefaction segments of the waveforms were considered, since these constitute the stimulating phase. When waveform pairs are viewed relative to their rarefactional areas, time separations between members are proportional to area differences, i.e., a form of time‐intensity trade obtains.