Pitch Polarity

The direction in which pitch changes correspond to navigation direction in an auditory interface — specifically, whether pitch increases (ascending polarity) or decreases (descending polarity) as a user scrolls downward through a list or menu. Pitch polarity is a design variable in sonification and auditory display systems. Research on auditory scrollbars has found that pitch polarity preferences are often evenly split among users and may not significantly affect task performance, though different types of data content may naturally map to different polarities. Allowing user preference or defaulting to either polarity can be acceptable in auditory menu design.