Every culture creates music, but what shapes our perception(感知) of music? In the past few years, psychologist Jacoby and his colleagues (visit) a remote area to investigate the question.
They specifically chose participants from Tsimane, have relatively little (expose) to Western music. For example, octaves(八度音阶) play an important role in Western music, but Tsimane' music instruments can't go with them. In the study, participants (ask) to listen to simple melodies and sing them. This exercise revealed that the Tsimane' didn't perceive octaves while participants from the U. S. did. It also revealed that (musical) trained Westerners were better at it than with no musical training. Therefore, the findings highlight the importance of musical experience.
musical experience, biology is also a key factor influencing perception of music. In another study, Jacoby's colleague found that unlike many Westerners, the Tsimane' found it pleasant to hear some notes (play) together.
Their study also revealed that both Westerners and the Tsimane' have trouble (distinguish) between really high notes above 4, 000 hertz, though human hearing goes up to 20, 000 hertz. That may be , wherever we're from, we hit the limits of our brains before we reach the limits of our ears.
