Mothers and their offspring perceive the tritone paradox in closely similar ways

The tritone paradox is produced when two tones that are related by a half-octave (or tritone) are presented in succession, and the tones are so constructed that their pitch classes (C, C#, D; and so on) are clearly defined but their pitch heights are ambiguous. When listeners judge whether such tone...

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Main Author: Diana DEUTSCH
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institute of Fundamental Technological Research Polish Academy of Sciences 2014-04-01
Series:Archives of Acoustics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://acoustics.ippt.pan.pl/index.php/aa/article/view/706
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author Diana DEUTSCH
author_facet Diana DEUTSCH
author_sort Diana DEUTSCH
collection DOAJ
description The tritone paradox is produced when two tones that are related by a half-octave (or tritone) are presented in succession, and the tones are so constructed that their pitch classes (C, C#, D; and so on) are clearly defined but their pitch heights are ambiguous. When listeners judge whether such tone pairs form ascending or descending patterns, their judgments show orderly relationships to the positions of the tones along the pitch-class circle: Tones in one region of the circle are heard as higher and those in the opposite region as lower. However, listeners disagree substantially as to which tones are heard as higher and which as lower, and these perceptual differences correlate with the language or dialect to which the listener has been exposed. In the present study, perceptions of mothers and their offspring were found to be strikingly similar, indicating that the mental representation influencing perception of the tritone paradox is formed early in life and survives into adulthood. It is conjectured that this mental representation is formed during the critical period in which infants acquire the features of their native language.
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series Archives of Acoustics
spelling doaj-art-9da3222e92be41038db4b1f55a630dcd2025-08-20T03:50:45ZengInstitute of Fundamental Technological Research Polish Academy of SciencesArchives of Acoustics0137-50752300-262X2014-04-01323Mothers and their offspring perceive the tritone paradox in closely similar waysDiana DEUTSCH0University of California, Department of PsychologyThe tritone paradox is produced when two tones that are related by a half-octave (or tritone) are presented in succession, and the tones are so constructed that their pitch classes (C, C#, D; and so on) are clearly defined but their pitch heights are ambiguous. When listeners judge whether such tone pairs form ascending or descending patterns, their judgments show orderly relationships to the positions of the tones along the pitch-class circle: Tones in one region of the circle are heard as higher and those in the opposite region as lower. However, listeners disagree substantially as to which tones are heard as higher and which as lower, and these perceptual differences correlate with the language or dialect to which the listener has been exposed. In the present study, perceptions of mothers and their offspring were found to be strikingly similar, indicating that the mental representation influencing perception of the tritone paradox is formed early in life and survives into adulthood. It is conjectured that this mental representation is formed during the critical period in which infants acquire the features of their native language.https://acoustics.ippt.pan.pl/index.php/aa/article/view/706pitchtritoneparadoxmusicspeechillusion
spellingShingle Diana DEUTSCH
Mothers and their offspring perceive the tritone paradox in closely similar ways
Archives of Acoustics
pitch
tritone
paradox
music
speech
illusion
title Mothers and their offspring perceive the tritone paradox in closely similar ways
title_full Mothers and their offspring perceive the tritone paradox in closely similar ways
title_fullStr Mothers and their offspring perceive the tritone paradox in closely similar ways
title_full_unstemmed Mothers and their offspring perceive the tritone paradox in closely similar ways
title_short Mothers and their offspring perceive the tritone paradox in closely similar ways
title_sort mothers and their offspring perceive the tritone paradox in closely similar ways
topic pitch
tritone
paradox
music
speech
illusion
url https://acoustics.ippt.pan.pl/index.php/aa/article/view/706
work_keys_str_mv AT dianadeutsch mothersandtheiroffspringperceivethetritoneparadoxincloselysimilarways