Klarinet Archive - Posting 001076.txt from 2004/03

From: "Joseph Wakeling" <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Pitch perception
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 11:13:27 -0500

Mark Charette wrote:
<< Less philisophical than imagined, I think. Diana Deutsch has done a
number of experiments showing regional differences in perception of pitch.
>>

Mm, my comment was badly phrased. ;-) Thank you for pointing me towards
Deutsch's work. But from what I've read, don't her results show differences
in *octave* perception of sound waves whose "absolute" octave is ambiguous
anyway? (Rather than showing more subtle differences such as perceiving one
note a semitone higher than another person.) Her work sounds similar to the
way that some listeners perceive tubular bells as sounding as written,
others perceive them as sounding an octave lower.

Her explanation that these things might be due to patterns we learn in
learning to speak is certainly interesting. Are you aware of any research
to try to confirm this further, e.g. by looking at people whose ethnic
origin is from one place, but who have been brought up in another, speaking
a different language?

-- Joe

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