A can of worms (at)

Subject: A can of worms
From:    at <REPP%ROD%YALEVMS.BITNETVM1.MCGILL.CA>
Date:    Wed, 27 Oct 1993 18:27:15 -0400

Hm... it seems I've opened a can of worms with this tritone business.
I should note that I undertook this research because I was critical of
Deutsch's procedures and suspicious of her findings; I found the British-
American difference against my will, so to speak. (It does not match
precisely the difference she found, but a difference it is.) I seem to
differ from most other respondents so far in that I consider her results
potentially important--if they are replicable.

Let me try one more thing, and then I'll give you all a break. Ernst
Terhardt, also in a paper in MUSIC PERCEPTION, has proposed an explanation
of individual differences in the tritone paradox in terms of the spectral
weighting function of his virtual pitch model. He said that this weighting
function shows individual differences, and that language experience (voice
pitch experience specifically) might influence the spectral weighting
function. Thus, Deutsch's and my findings may be taken to imply that
British and American listeners (as well as individuals within each group)
differ in their spectral weighting functions. Again, my question is:
Is there any OTHER evidence for the existence of such individual
differences--from other studies, tasks, etc.--and for any influence of
auditory long-term experience on the spectral weighting function?

--Bruno Repp