Req: pitch-to-physical space mappings, refs

["Bruce N. Walker" <walkerb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings!

I'm looking for references / information relating to the mapping of pitch
to physical space. Does the "pitch space" really relate to / map onto the
physical space, and if so, is it an up:up::down:down mapping? (I *used
to* think so...)

For example, it seems "intuitive" that tones that are "high" in pitch
would elicit a faster "upwards" response than a "downward" response.
Likewise, "low" pitches should result in faster movements toward a "lower"
button. However, "intuitive" is not panning out (again)!

I'm not seeing the typical Stimulus-Response Compatibility effects that
one would expect if there really were an overlap of the pitch's
up-down dimension and the response's up-down dimension.

Does the "pitch space" really map onto the physical space? Should this
be like the *many* spatial compatibility effects out there (e.g., Simon,
Mudd, Melara, Marks, Proctor, etc.)?

So I gues it comes down to this: How spatial is the pitch space?

Thanks in advance for comments and references.
--Bruce

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce Walker  (PC86-88)        Rice University Psychology Department
email: walkerb@rice.edu      6100 S. Main St., Houston, Texas, 77005
ph: (713) 522-2969 (home)              (713) 527-8101 x3772 (office)
Web: http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~walkerb        (713) 285-5221 (fax)
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