Perception of single octave-related complexes in relation to the tritone paradox

Abstract

In the tritone paradox, listeners are presented with a sequential pair of octave-related complexes separated by an interval of half an octave. Listeners tend to perceive these stimuli such that half of the pitch class circle is heard as higher, and the opposite half is heard as lower. It is theorized that listeners compare these tones to a circular pitch class template, having an orientation with respect to height that differs among listeners, in making these relative height judgments. In the present experiment, listeners were presented with two sets of stimuli. In the first, listeners were presented with the tritone paradox stimuli. In the second, listeners were presented with a single octave-related complex (rather than a pair of such tones) on each trial, and were asked to determine whether each tone was high or low without comparison to any other tone. An influence of pitch class on perceived height was shown for both tritone and single tone stimuli, and a significant relationship between perception of the tritone paradox and perception of the single octave-related complexes was obtained. These results are in accord with the pitch class template theory.