Abstract:

Shepard [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 36, 2346--2353 (1964)] has shown that ordered pairs of octave-related complexes are perceived in accordance with proximity. However, in his experiment, proximity-based judgments gradually decreased as intervals approached a tritone. With tritones, Deutsch [Music Percept. 8, 335--347 (1991)] found that listeners perceive half of the pitch-class circle as higher in pitch, and the opposite half as lower. The half heard as higher differs among subjects (the tritone paradox). Deutsch theorized that listeners compare these tritones to a circular pitch-class template, whose orientation with respect to height differs among listeners. The present study examines the perception of octave-related complexes that form intervals of P5/P4 or m3/M6. It was hypothesized that listeners may sometimes use a pitch-class template, rather than proximity, with intervals other than a tritone. Template orientations were determined using Deutsch's paradigm. Subjects were presented with sequences of tones that traversed the circle of fifths. Perception of these tones was closely related to each subject's pitch-class template, and not to proximity. Similar, though less pronounced, results were found in a second experiment using an ordered series of m3/M6.