Subjects were required to make easy pitch discriminations at four frequency levels. In a counterbalanced design, for half their judgements they were required to choose the higher of the pair of tones, and for the other half, the lower. It was found that subjects were quicker at choosing the higher than the lower of two high tones, but quicker at choosing the lower than the higher of two low tones. This ‘cross‐over’ effect was found to be graded across the stimulus levels intermediate in the series, the intersection point being somewhat below the geometric mean of the series of frequencies used. While latencies tended to decrease during the course of an indiviual session, the cross‐over effect was consistently observable in an analysis that controlled for such practice effects. Whether the tone responded to was the first or the second of the pair discriminated was found to be a significant variable. The ‘cross‐over’ phenomenon was only consistently effective when the second tone was chosen. Linking these findings to similar phenomena previously demonstrated in brightness discrimination, theoretical suggestions are advanced which are relevant to all judgemental processes.
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WALLIS et al. (1964) studied this question.