Chroma the basis of Pitch?

Would a melody by recognizable if scrambled in terms of height while retaining chroma?

if the listener could attend only to chroma and ignore height, the answer would be ``yes''.

**Figure 7:** Melody in randomized octaves (top), stretched (middle), normal (bottom).
$\scalebox{0.6}{\includegraphics{eps/scrambledmelody.eps}}$

Researchers found that our perception of melody depends critically on height as well as chroma.

A melody constucted with incorrect chroma but correct contour and height can be more recognizable than one that is completely scrambled in height.

``Music 175: Pitch II'' by Tamara Smyth, Department of Music, University of California, San Diego (UCSD).