Do bilinguals perceive the tritone paradox as monolinguals do?

Do bilinguals perceive the tritone paradox as monolinguals do?
Magdalene H. Chalikia1 and Jyotsna Vaid2
View Affiliations
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 106, 2207 (1999); http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.427497


When a two tone pattern in which the tones are related by a half octave interval (tritone) is played in any key, listeners hear it as descending or ascending, on the basis of an individual pitch class template (Deutsch, 1986). Perception of this pattern has been reported to vary with the geographical region in which the listener grew up, and it has been suggested (Deutsch, 1994; Ragozzine and Deutsch, 1994) that the characteristics of ones pitch class template may vary among speakers of different dialects and languages. This hypothesis was tested by asking how bilingualism may influence the perception of the tritone pairs. Spanish/English bilinguals were tested and their performance was compared with that of a group of English speakers. All listeners were from Texas. The results indicate that bilinguals perceive the patterns differently than the monolinguals. Envelope influences will also be discussed.