Infants’ perception of musical patterns

This paper examines infants’ ability to perceive various aspects of musical material that are significant in music in general and in Western European music in particular: contour, intervals, exact pitches, diatonic structure, and rhythm. For the most part, infants focus on relational aspects of melodies, synthesizing global representations from local details. They encode the contour of a melody across variations in exact pitches and intervals. They extract information about pitch direction from the smallest musically relevant pitch change in Western music, the semitone. Under certain conditions, infants detect interval changes in the context of transposed sequences, their performance showing enhancement for sequences that conform to Western musical structure. Infants have difficulty retaining exact pitches except for sets of pitches that embody important musical relations. In the temporal domain, they group the elements of auditory sequences on the basis of similarity and they extract the temporal structure of a melody across variations in tempo.     

Auditory feedback in music performance: the role of melodic structure and musical skill

Five experiments explored whether fluency in musical sequence production relies on matches between the contents of auditory feedback and the planned outcomes of actions. Participants performed short melodies from memory on a keyboard while musical pitches that sounded in synchrony with each keypress (feedback contents) were altered. Results indicated that altering pitch contents can disrupt production, but only when altered pitches form a sequence that is structurally similar to the planned sequence. These experiments also addressed the role of musical skill: Experiments 1 and 3 included trained pianists; other experiments included participants with little or no musical training. Results were similar across both groups with respect to the disruptive effects of auditory feedback manipulations. These results support the idea that a common hierarchical representation guides sequences of actions and the perception of event sequences and that this coordination is not acquired from learned associations formed by musical skill acquisition.     

Recognition of music in long-term memory: Are melodic and temporal patterns equal partners?

The notion that the melody (i.e., pitch structure) of familiar music is more recognizable than its accompanying rhythm (i.e., temporal structure) was examined with the same set of nameable musical excerpts in three experiments. In Experiment 1, the excerpts were modified so as to keep either their original pitch variations, whereas durations were set to isochrony (melodic condition) or their original temporal pattern while played on a single constant pitch (rhythmic condition). The subjects, who were selected without regard to musical training, were found to name more tunes and to rate their feeling of knowing the musical excerpts far higher in the melodic condition than in the rhythmic condition. These results were replicated in Experiment 2, wherein the melodic and rhythmic patterns of the musical excerpts were interchanged to create chimeric mismatched tunes. The difference in saliency of the melodic pattern and the rhythmic pattern also emerged with a music-title-verification task in Experiment 3, hence discarding response selection as the main source of the discrepancy. The lesser effectiveness of rhythmic structure appears to be related to its lesser encoding distinctiveness relative to melodic structure. In general, rhythm was found to be a poor cue for the musical representations that are stored in long-term memory. Nevertheless, in all three experiments, the most effective cue for music identification involved the proper combination of pitches and durations. Therefore, the optimal code of access to long-term memory for music resides in a combination of rhythm and melody, of which the latter would be the most informative.     

Dynamic processes in music perception

A schema-based theory of music perception that describes the dynamic interaction between the musical event and the listener’s knowledge of the underlying regularities in tonal music is proposed. Three properties of musical schema are evaluated in a recognition memory experiment: (1) The schema engages a subset of the abstract knowledge system that is determined by the predominant key of the musical sequence, (2) the schema evaluates both interval relations and the functions of the sounded elements within the established tonal framework, and (3) the schema interacts continuously with the musical event in time to process pitch information in its temporal context. Listeners are required to identify the serial position of a chord that is changed between two successive chord sequences that are otherwise identical. The experiment measures the magnitude and the temporal extent of the disruptive effect of including in the sequence an element outside the tonal framework. The results show temporally specific effects on memory for pitch relations consistent with the operation of a musical schema. Comparisons are made with schema-based theories applied in other perceptual and cognitive domains.     

Phrasing influences the recognition of melodies

One critical step in the processing of complex auditory information (i.e., language and music) involves organizing such information into hierarchical units, such as phrases. In this study, musically trained and untrained listeners' recognition memory for short, naturalistic melodies varying in their phrase structure was tested. For musically trained subjects, memory for information preceding a phrase boundary was disrupted and memory for information subsequent to a phrase boundary was enhanced relative to memory in similar temporal locations for excerpts not containing a phrase boundary. Musically untrained listeners, in contrast, showed no such differences as a function of the phrasing of the melody. These findings conform with previous results in both psycholinguistics and musical cognition and suggest that the phrase serves as a functional unit in musical processing, guiding the parsing of musical sequences during perception, along with the structuring of memory for musical passages.     

Perceptual interactions between musical pitch and timbre.

These experiments examined perceptual interactions between musical pitch and timbre. Experiment 1, through the use of the Garner classification tasks, found that pitch and timbre of isolated tones interact. Classification times showed interference from uncorrelated variation in the irrelevant attribute and facilitation from correlated variation; the effects were symmetrical. Experiments 2 and 3 examined how musical pitch and timbre function in longer sequences. In recognition memory tasks, a target tone always appeared in a fixed position in the sequences, and listeners were instructed to attend to either its pitch or its timbre. For successive tones, no interactions between timbre and pitch were found. That is, changing the pitches of context tones did not affect timbre recognition, and vice versa. The tendency to perceive pitch in relation to other context pitches was strong and unaffected by whether timbre was constant or varying. In contrast, the relative perception of timbre was weak and was found only when pitch was constant. These results suggest that timbre is perceived more in absolute than in relative terms. Perceptual implications for creating patterns in music with timbre variations are discussed.     

Reduced Memory Representations for Music

We address the problem of musical variation (identification of different musical sequences as variations) and its implications for mental representations of music. According to reductionist theories, listeners judge the structural importance of musical events while forming mental representations. These judgments may result from the production of reduced memory representations that retain only the musical gist. In a study of improvised music performance, pianists produced variations on melodies. Analyses of the musical events retained across variations provided support for the reductionist account of structural importance. A neural network trained to produce reduced memory representations for the same melodies represented structurally important events more efficiently than others. Agreement among the musicians' improvisations, the network model, and music-theoretic predictions suggest that perceived constancy across musical variation is a natural result of a reductionist mechanism for producing memory representations.     

Perceptual grouping affects pitch judgments across time and frequency

Pitch, the perceptual correlate of fundamental frequency (F0), plays an important role in speech, music, and animal vocalizations. Changes in F0 over time help define musical melodies and speech prosody, while comparisons of simultaneous F0 are important for musical harmony, and for segregating competing sound sources. This study compared listeners' ability to detect differences in F0 between pairs of sequential or simultaneous tones that were filtered into separate, nonoverlapping spectral regions. The timbre differences induced by filtering led to poor F0 discrimination in the sequential, but not the simultaneous, conditions. Temporal overlap of the two tones was not sufficient to produce good performance; instead performance appeared to depend on the two tones being integrated into the same perceptual object. The results confirm the difficulty of comparing the pitches of sequential sounds with different timbres and suggest that, for simultaneous sounds, pitch differences may be detected through a decrease in perceptual fusion rather than an explicit coding and comparison of the underlying F0s.     

Absolute pitch in infant auditory learning: evidence for developmental reorganization

To what extent do infants represent the absolute pitches of complex auditory stimuli? Two experiments with 8-month-old infants examined the use of absolute and relative pitch cues in a tone-sequence statistical learning task. The results suggest that, given unsegmented stimuli that do not conform to the rules of musical composition, infants are more likely to track patterns of absolute pitches than of relative pitches. A 3rd experiment tested adults with or without musical training on the same statistical learning tasks used in the infant experiments. Unlike the infants, adult listeners relied primarily on relative pitch cues. These results suggest a shift from an initial focus on absolute pitch to the eventual dominance of relative pitch, which, it is argued, is more useful for both music and speech processing.     

Temporal discrimination of recycled tonal sequences: Pattern matching and naming of order by untrained listeners

Sets of recycled sequences of four successive tones were presented in all six possible orders to untrained listeners. For pitches within the musical range, recognition (as measured by matching of any unknown order with an array of permuted orders of the same tones) could be accomplished as readily for tonal durations and frequency separations outside the limits employed for melodic construction as inside these limits. Identifying or naming of relative pitches of successive tones was considerably more difficult than matching for these tonal sequences, and appeared to follow different rules based upon duration and upon frequency separation. Use of frequencies above the pitch limits for music (4,500 Hz and above) resulted in poor performance both for matching and naming of order. Introduction of short silent intervals between items was without effect for both tasks. Naming of order and pattern recognition appear to reflect different basic processes, in agreement with earlier formulations based on experiments with phonemic sequences of speech and sequences of unrelated sounds (hisses, tones, buzzes). Special characteristics of tonal sequences are discussed, and some speculations concerning music are offered.     

Congenital amusia: A short-term memory deficit for non-verbal,but not verbal sounds

Congenital amusia refers to a lifelong disorder of music processing and is linked to pitch-processing deficits. The present study investigated congenital amusics’ short-term memory for tones, musical timbres and words. Sequences of five events (tones, timbres or words) were presented in pairs and participants had to indicate whether the sequences were the same or different. The performance of congenital amusics confirmed a memory deficit for tone sequences, but showed normal performance for word sequences. For timbre sequences, amusics’ memory performance was impaired in comparison to matched controls. Overall timbre performance was found to be correlated with melodic contour processing (as assessed by the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia). The present findings show that amusics’ deficits extend to non-verbal sound material other than pitch, in this case timbre, while not affecting memory for verbal material. This is in line with previous suggestions about the domain-specificity of congenital amusia.     

A developmental study of latent absolute pitch memory

The ability to recall the absolute pitch level of familiar music (latent absolute pitch memory) is widespread in adults, in contrast to the rare ability to label single pitches without a reference tone (overt absolute pitch memory). The present research investigated the developmental profile of latent absolute pitch (AP) memory and explored individual differences related to this ability. In two experiments, 288 children from 4 to12 years of age performed significantly above chance at recognizing the absolute pitch level of familiar melodies. No age-related improvement or decline, nor effects of musical training, gender, or familiarity with the stimuli were found in regard to latent AP task performance. These findings suggest that latent AP memory is a stable ability that is developed from as early as age 4 and persists into adulthood.     

Can musical transformations be implicitly learned?

The dominant theory of what people can learn implicitly is that they learn chunks of adjacent elements in sequences. A type of musical grammar that goes beyond specifying allowable chunks is provided by serialist or 12-tone music. The rules constitute operations over variables and could not be appreciated as such by a system that can only chunk elements together. A series of studies investigated the extent to which people could implicitly (or explicitly) learn the structures of serialist music. We found that people who had no background in atonal music did not learn the structures, but highly selected participants with an interest in atonal music could implicitly learn to detect melodies instantiating the structures. The results have implications for both theorists of implicit learning and composers who may wish to know which structures they put into a piece of music can be appreciated.     

A comparison of serial order short-term memory effects across verbal and musical domains

Recent studies suggest that the mechanisms involved in the short-term retention of serial order information may be shared across short-term memory (STM) domains such as verbal and visuospatial STM. Given the intrinsic sequential organization of musical material, the study of STM for musical information may be particularly informative about serial order retention processes and their domain-generality. The present experiment examined serial order STM for verbal and musical sequences in participants with no advanced musical expertise and experienced musicians. Serial order STM for verbal information was assessed via a serial order reconstruction task for digit sequences. In the musical domain, serial order STM was assessed using a novel melodic sequence reconstruction task maximizing the retention of tone order information. We observed that performance for the verbal and musical tasks was characterized by sequence length as well as primacy and recency effects. Serial order errors in both tasks were characterized by similar transposition gradients and ratios of fill-in:infill errors. These effects were observed for both participant groups, although the transposition gradients and ratios of fill-in:infill errors showed additional specificities for musician participants in the musical task. The data support domain-general serial order STM effects but also suggest the existence of additional domain-specific effects. Implications for models of serial order STM in verbal and musical domains are discussed.     

Suppression effects on musical and verbal memory

Three experiments contrasted the effects of articulatory suppression on recognition memory for musical and verbal sequences. In Experiment 1, a standard/comparison task was employed, with digit or note sequences presented visually or auditorily while participants remained silent or produced intermittent verbal suppression (saying "the") or musical suppression (singing "la"). Both suppression types decreased performance by equivalent amounts, as compared with no suppression. Recognition accuracy was lower during suppression for visually presented digits than during that for auditorily presented digits (consistent with phonological loop predictions), whereas accuracy was equivalent for visually presented notes and auditory tones. When visual interference filled the retention interval in Experiment 2, performance with visually presented notes but not digits was impaired. Experiment 3 forced participants to translate visually presented music sequences by presenting comparison sequences auditorily. Suppression effects for visually presented music resembled those for digits only when the recognition task required sensory translation of cues.     

Learning non-local dependencies

This paper addresses the nature of the temporary storage buffer used in implicit or statistical learning. Kuhn and Dienes [Kuhn, G., and Dienes, Z. (2005). Implicit learning of nonlocal musical rules: implicitly learning more than chunks. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Learning Memory and Cognition, 31(6) 1417-1432] showed that people could implicitly learn a musical rule that was solely based on non-local dependencies. These results seriously challenge models of implicit learning that assume knowledge merely takes the form of linking adjacent elements (chunking). We compare two models that use a buffer to allow learning of long distance dependencies, the Simple Recurrent Network (SRN) and the memory buffer model. We argue that these models - as models of the mind - should not be evaluated simply by fitting them to human data but by determining the characteristic behaviour of each model. Simulations showed for the first time that the SRN could rapidly learn non-local dependencies. However, the characteristic performance of the memory buffer model rather than SRN more closely matched how people came to like different musical structures. We conclude that the SRN is more powerful than previous demonstrations have shown, but it's flexible learned buffer does not explain people's implicit learning (at least, the affective learning of musical structures) as well as fixed memory buffer models do.     

Behind the scene: cognitive benefits of playing a musical instrument. Executive functions,processing speed,fluid intelligence and divided attention / Detrás de la escena: beneficios cognitivos de tocar un instrumento musical. Funciones ejecutivas,velocidad de procesamiento,inteligencia fluida y atención dividida

Abstract

The relationship between music training and cognitive performance has been much explored over the last decades. A variety of evidence shows a different neurological and cognitive processing in the population who have undergone instrumental music training compared to people who have not. A review of the literature shows the many advantages in cognitive skills musicians have gained from musical training, such as benefits to their executive functions and other aspects of cognition, in children as well as adults and the elderly. This study investigates in greater depth certain cognitive aspects associated with musical training in the adult population. Specifically, it explores its relationship with inhibition, working memory (verbal and visual-spatial), flexibility, processing speed, fluid intelligence and divided attention. Our results suggest that there is indeed a relationship between musical training and improvements in cognitive performance, both in executive functions and in other areas of cognition.     

Enhanced Implicit Sequence Learning in College‐age Video Game Players and Musicians

We examined whether college‐age video game players and musicians are better than controls at implicit sequence learning in the Alternating Serial Reaction Time Task. People learn to use subtle sequence regularities to respond more accurately and quickly to predictable versus non‐predictable events. Although previous studies have shown experts' enhanced processing speed and perception, this is the first to demonstrate that people who regularly play video games or a musical instrument showed greater implicit sequence learning, suggesting that experience playing games or music may improve the efficiency with which people learn sequential regularities in the environment. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of music-elicited emotions and relative pitch on absolute pitch memory for familiar melodies

Levitin's findings that nonmusicians could produce from memory the absolute pitches of self-selected pop songs have been widely cited in the music psychology literature. These findings suggest that latent absolute pitch (AP) memory may be a more widespread trait within the population than traditional AP labelling ability. However, it has been left unclear what factors may facilitate absolute pitch retention for familiar pieces of music. The aim of the present paper was to investigate factors that may contribute to latent AP memory using Levitin's sung production paradigm for AP memory and comparing results to the outcomes of a pitch labelling task, a relative pitch memory test, measures of music-induced emotions, and various measures of participants' musical backgrounds. Our results suggest that relative pitch memory and the quality and degree of music-elicited emotions impact on latent AP memory.     

Beat It! Music Overloads Novice Dancers

Together with melody, harmony, and timbre, rhythm and beat provide temporal structure for movement timing. Such musical features may act as cues to the phrasing and dynamics of a dance choreographed to the music. Novice dancers (N = 54) learned to criterion a novel 32‐s dance‐pop routine, either to full music or to the rhythm of that music. At test, participants recalled the dance to the same music, rhythm, new music, and in silence. If musical features aid memory, then full music during learning and test should result in superior dance recall, whereas if rhythm alone aids memory, then rhythm during learning and test should result in superior recall. The presence of a rhythm accompaniment during learning provided a significantly greater memory advantage for the recall of dance‐pop steps than full music. After learning to full music, silence at test enhanced recall. Findings are discussed in terms of entrainment and cognitive load. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.