David Huron
Society for Music Perception and Cognition Conference, 1997.
After more than a century of experimental research, the phenomena of consonance and dissonance continue to be enigmatic subjects. Both low-level (sensory) phenomena and high-level (cognitive and cultural) phenomena are known to be important. Most of the experimental research has focused on sensory aspects. However, the consensus view that existed in the 1970's is no longer tenable given the problems and inconsistencies that have been exposed over the past decade. New interpretations are needed.
In the case of low-level (sensory or non-cognitive) dissonance, classic work linked phenomenal experience to the peripheral auditory system (Greenwood, 1961; Plomp and Levelt, 1965; Kamoekoa and Kuriyagawa, 1969a/b; Greenwod, 1991). More recent studies have correlate sensory dissonance with cochlear model features (Simpson, 1994), but major inconsistencies remain in the Kameoka and Kuriyagawa approach (Mashinter, 1995).
It is suggested that problems with the Kameoka and Kuriyagawa measurement method implies a separate "consonance" perception independent from sensory dissonance. Further problems identified by Vos (1986) can be interpreted as an independent factor in dissonance perception.
A "duplex theory" of sensory dissonance is considered where both tonotopic and temporal processes are implicated. The tonotopic factor suggests that maximum dissonance arises when points of peak excitation along the basilar membrane are separated by roughly 0.4 mm.
Another tack to understanding dissonance is to pose the Gibsonian question: What is the function of sensory dissonance? To this end, a speculative evolutionary account of low-level or sensory dissonance is proposed. It is suggested that sensory dissonance is a mild negative-valence limbic response arising from stimulus-engendered degradation of the auditory system. Sensory dissonance may be likened to fear of the dark: in both cases our ability to perceive the world is compromised.
The involvement of the limbic system is supported by research on the auditory disgust response (Dimberg, 1989), and in research which has found high correlations between auditory stimulus aversion and sensation-seeking scores on standardized personality inventories (Orlebeke and Feij, 1979; Ridgeway and Hare, 1981; Zuckerman, 1994). This latter research is consistent with the informal observation that dissonance perceptions are mediated by personality. Precoda has proposed a test of this evolutionary account in predicting different behavioral responses by predators and prey in environments containing high levels of masking.