Alternating octave tones between ears produce a fixed high-right low-left percept
Evidence
Most listeners report hearing a high tone in the right ear alternating with a low tone in the left ear as illustrated in the figure, no matter which way round the headphones are placed. She further notes that right-handed listeners tend to report hearing the high tone in the right ear alternating with a low tone in the left ear, while left-handed listeners tend to hear a high tone alternating with a low tone, but it is equally likely that the high tone is heard in the left or right ear. This illusion persists when the stimuli are played over loudspeakers. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1619
Categorization
- CANDY: A party-ready illusion: swap your headphones round and the high tone stubbornly stays in your right ear.
- QUESTION: Why should handedness, a motor asymmetry, bias which ear seems to hear the high tone? Worth chasing into cortical lateralization literature.
- XREF: connects to: Low-frequency harmonic complexes and transposed high-frequency tones isolate phase-locking cues for lateralization tests — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1041; Simultaneously presented tones sharpen pitch discrimination down to beat disappearance; Manipulating envelope and fine structure separately reveals their competing roles in tone perception. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3384 (+17 more)
Broader Connections
- Low-frequency harmonic complexes and transposed high-frequency tones isolate phase-locking cues for lateralization tests
#expands(1.00) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1041 - Simultaneously presented tones sharpen pitch discrimination down to beat disappearance
#contradicts(1.00) - Harmonically shifted complex tones isolate fine structure cues while holding envelope constant
#expands(1.00) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4611 - Output-based cross-ear inhibition amplifies existing inter-aural asymmetries
#complicates(0.80) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1939 - Low-frequency pitch judgments reflect temporal fine structure via neural phase locking
#expands(0.80) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1043 - Shifting harmonic partials upward raises perceived pitch despite unchanged envelope modulation
#expands(0.80) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1119 - Envelope ITDs in high-frequency tones are generated with transposed stimuli carrying a second-order AM
#expands(0.80) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2955 - Pitch perception is explained by two competing physiological models of the inner ear
#complicates(0.80) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 892 - Manipulating envelope and fine structure separately reveals their competing roles in tone perception.
#qualifies(0.70) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3384 - Handedness predicts which ear listeners hear high tones in
#complicates(0.70) - A fixed pure tone’s perceived direction shifts with its frequency
#qualifies(0.70) - Sharp spectral peaks, not narrow gaps, drive strong pitch perception
#qualifies(0.70) - Auditory filters respond asymmetrically, favoring frequencies below center
#qualifies(0.70) — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1124 - Perception of two tones progresses from beats to roughness to smoothness
#qualifies(0.70) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 575 - Cortical responses to sound are stronger from the opposite ear than the same-side ear
#responds-to(0.70) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2625