Abstract
It is clear that a certain perceptual equivalence exists between tones standing in an octave relationship. However, it was previously found that subjects were unable to recognize a well-known melody when its component tones were placed randomly in any one of three octaves. In the present experiment, subjects listened to a standard melody, and then to a comparison melody; and they judged whether the comparison melody was an exact transposition of the standard or not. Exact repetition of the standard melody produced a significant improvement in performance, which also occurred when the repeated melody was displaced entirely to the octave above or the octave below that of the standard. However, when the melody was repeated such that its individual components were placed alternately in the octave above and the octave below, performance was significantly poorer than when the melody was not repeated at all. It appears that octave equivalence does not operate in short term melody acquisition any more than in long term melody recognition.
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