The influence of musical training on the perception of sequentially presented mistuned harmonics

The question of whether musical scales have developed from a processing adv antage for frequency ratios based on small integers, i.e., ratios derived f rom relationships among harmonically related tones, is widely debated in mu sicology and music perception. In the extreme position, this processing adv antage for these so-called ''natural intervals'' is assumed to be inherent, and to apply to sequentially presented tones. If this is the case, evidenc e for this processing advantage should show up in psychoacoustic experiment s using listeners from the general population. This paper reports on replic ations and extensions of two studies from the literature. One [Lee and Gree n, J. Acoust. Sec. Am. 96, 716-725 (1994)] suggests that listeners from the general population can in fact determine whether sequentially presented to nes are harmonically related. The Ether study [Houtgast, J. Acoust. Sec. Am . 60, 405-409 (1976)] is interpreted in different terms, but could be confo unded by such an ability. The results of the replications and extensions, u sing listeners of known relative pitch proficiency, are consistent with the idea that only trained musicians can reliably determine whether sequential ly presented tones are harmonically related. (C) 1999 Acoustical Society of America. [S0001-4966(99)06111-1].