Klarinet Archive - Posting 000217.txt from 1996/09

From: Mark Charette <charette@-----.COM>
Subj: Auditory Illusions (Re: Dan Leeson comments)
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 1996 23:36:14 -0400

Neil Leupold wrote:
>
> As I said before, such an argument is to the effect of comparing apples
> to oranges (or to whatever other more creative non-sequitur item is as
> metaphorically far away from apples as possible). The foundation of Dan's
> strict adherence to objective science, in order to substantiate arguments
> against the subjective nature of the human ear, is based upon the
> supposition that subjective interpretation is unreliable in determining
> facts. That's what the "scientific method" is designed to eliminate. We
> can't use our ears to tell us the truth (read: facts) about the quality of
> sound coming from two (or two hundred) different clarinets because, in
> Dan's opinion, the human ear is not an objective instrumental guage and
> can not be trusted to render an unbiased evaluation. We're talking about
> sound here, folks, not music. Sound is a physical phenomenon - i.e.;
> waves in the air of particular frequencies and amplitudes.
>

Optical illusions abound; we know not to trust our eyes but
rely on some semblance of measurement. Indeed, if optical
illusions did not occur, movies, television, and other
wonders of this age would be incessantly annoying with their
flicker.

Auditory illusions also occur; I point anyone with interest
to an article in Scientific American, "Paradoxes of Musical Pitch",
by Dr. Diana Deutsch, August 1992. This article points out
the apparent differences in perception of ascending/descending
tone pairs by different subjects. Interestingly, "British and
Californian populations perceived the tri-tone paradox in
virtually opposite ways".

I've read more on auditory illusions but can't find anty more references
(this one took an hour searching in the basement!); one particularly
had "sound source ghosting" research (the apparent large movement
of particular sound sources with minute motions of the head) for
particular acoustical environments (something to do with phase
relationships). Hopefully someone in a University could look that one
up.
--
Mark Charette "Don't crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers"
charette@-----.com - Firesign Theater