cultural conditioning

I wrote:
>
> Jerry wrote,
>
>>But here is the interesting part. When I listen to the 4:5:6 examples--both
>>sine and "partialed"--the third sounds too low to me. I want to raise it.
>>(Call it "cultural conditioning" if you want to, but it certainly is not
>>conditioning for the novice singers in my college choir who have heard
>>tempered thirds all their lives.)

To which Paul Erlich inquired:
>
> How does that argument run?

Simply that I know of no reason why novice singers should "prefer" anything
other than what they have heard all of their lives--namely tempered thirds.
Nevertheless, after learning how to tune (in the general sense of seeking
peaceful intervals), they appear to prefer a tuning lower than the tempered
third when singing a simple interval and then move to a tuning higher than
the tempered third when the fifth is sounding. As far as I can see, there
has been no conditioning toward either of these "preferences" other than a
recently learned sensitivity to aural tuning.

As you know, I am not "arguing" for any preconceived conclusion. I'm just
trying to learn something.

Jerry