Two questions I was asked (John ffitch )

Subject: Two questions I was asked
From:    John ffitch  <jpff(at)CS.BATH.AC.UK>
Date:    Thu, 30 Dec 2004 11:37:52 +0000

I teach a course on DSP and music processing, in which I include a
little psychoacoustics, mainly to suggest that things are not as
simple as they might think, and to introduce a little on compression.
This year I played a few examples from Diana Deutsch's CD, and read
them some of the notes for components that need headphones, or would
take too long.

At the end of the lecture one of the students cam and asked a couple
of questions, which surprised me as particular student has not said a
word for 12 weeks.

Anyway the two questions are:
a) Related to the Tritone paradox, if the language of the listener
affects the rising or falling interpretation, what happens to
bi-lingual listeners, especially those who have been brought up as
bi-lingual?  Student in question is certainly of this kind.  I assume
the first language would dominate, but said I would ask.

b) The second question related to the effect of handedness to the
octave paradox.  Handedness has been related to brain hemisphere
dominance, and so has the gender differences.  Is there any gender
difference in this paradox?

Apologies if these are not very clear; I am not a psychologist and
this is way outside my main areas.  But I did promise the student that
I would ask.

==John ffitch

PS Student is female and Ukrainian I believe.