A REGIONAL DIFFERENCE IN PERCEPTION OF THE TRITONE PARADOX WITHIN THEUNITED-STATES

A previous study (Deutsch, 1991) demonstrated a striking difference in perception of the tritone paradox between subjects who had grown up i n two different geographical regions. Specifically, a group of subject s who had grown up in California were compared with a group who had gr own up in the South of England. When the Californian group tended to h ear the pattern as ascending, the English group tended to hear it as d escending, and vice versa. This raises the question of whether regiona l differences also exist within the United States in the way this patt ern is perceived. The present study examined the percepts of subjects who had grown up in Mahoning and/or Trumbull countries in Ohio. Two gr oups were compared: those whose parents had also grown up in this area and those for whom this was not the case. A highly significant differ ence between these two groups of subjects was obtained, with those in the latter group producing a distribution of percepts similar to that found among Californians and those in the former group producing a dif ferent distribution. From this and other analyses of the data, it is c oncluded that regional differences in perception of the tritone parado x do indeed exist within the United States and that there is in additi on an effect of familial background.