Note entry and octave selected

I am using 0.9.6 revision 2148 on Ubuntu 8.10

When performing note entry, it seems to me that octave selection is random. I would think that the octave chosen would be the nearest to the previous note. I can't understand how this is chosen or how to control it. I only alter it after it has chosen some absurd octave, sometimes two octaves away from what I intended. Is there some way to control this?

bones12