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Background and Theory

In music, there are certain types of sounds, and patterns of sounds, which are perceived ambiguously. In other words, certain individuals might perceive one pattern or sound, while other individuals might perceive another. More interestingly, an individual may perceive a stimulus as one pattern at one moment, then another pattern the next. As an example in visual perception, Figure 1 shows an image in which two different objects may be perceived. What object do you see in the image?

Figure 1: Illusion with visual ambiguity.
\includegraphics{figures/cup_or_faces.eps}


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``Musical Illusions and Paradoxes Lab'', by Ryan J. Cassidy and Julius O. Smith III,
REALSIMPLE Project — work supported by the Wallenberg Global Learning Network .
Released 2008-06-05 under the Creative Commons License (Attribution 2.5), by Ryan J. Cassidy and Julius O. Smith III
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA),   Stanford University
CCRMA