Don Gibson
Psychomusicology, Vol. 12, No. 1 (1993) pp. 58-72.
The purpose of this study was to investigate further the potential of pitch and pitch-class content as measures of aural association in simultaneities not associated with the traditional Western tonal system. The study, which used the two-alternative forced-choice design, included 24 experimental items, each of which consisted of two pairs of complementary hexachords. The second chord of one pair of each item included the six pitch classes which were not included in the first chord of that pair. The second chord of the other pair shared from one to four pitch classes with the first chord of that pair, presented either in the same octave or in different octaves. Subjects were asked to judge which pair sounded more different. An Apple IIe computer equipped with ALF MC 16 Music Cards delivered a randomized presentation of the experimental items to the subjects. This study was completed by 50 music majors and 57 nonmusic majors. The results suggest that octave equivalence is not an effective predictor of aural association in nontraditional hexachord simultaneities. A tendency for nonmusic majors to choose the second pair of chords over the first pair was also identified.