Pitch height is thought to be mentally represented along the vertical and the horizontal axes. This is based on a well-described effect: the Spatial Pitch Association of Response Codes (SPARC) effect. A low pitch is more easily associated with a left or a low location and a high pitch with a right or a high location. While much of the evidence supports the existence of these two "mental pitch lines" in musicians, the existence of a horizontal "mental pitch line" in non-musicians is much debated. The aim of the present study was to determine if the existence of a horizontal SPARC effect in non-musicians corresponds to a true tendency to represent pitch as ordinal information on a horizontal line. In two experiments with pitch-comparison tasks, a horizontal SPARC effect was replicated in non-musicians but was more in accordance with a dichotomous space-pitch association than with a true "mental pitch line". The SPARC effect cannot be considered as a proof of a real horizontal "mental pitch line" in non-musicians.

中文翻译：

---

关于非音乐家中存在水平心理音高线的问题。

音高在精神上沿垂直和水平轴表示。这是基于充分描述的效果：“响应代码的空间音高关联”（SPARC）效果。低音高更容易与左侧或较低位置关联，而高音高则与右侧或较高位置关联。尽管许多证据支持音乐家中存在这两条“精神音高线”，但非音乐家中是否存在水平“精神音高线”仍存在很多争议。本研究的目的是确定在非音乐家中是否存在水平SPARC效应是否与将音高表示为水平线上的序数信息的真实趋势相对应。在两个进行音高比较任务的实验中，非音乐家复制了水平SPARC效果，但更符合二分音高关联而不是真实的“心理音高线”。在非音乐家中，SPARC效果不能视为真实水平“心理音高线”的证明。