The role of timing deviations and target position uncertainty on temporal attending in a serial auditory pitch discrimination task

Listeners were presented with sequences of tones that ascended in semitone intervals. On each trial a single target tone in the sequence was displaced in pitch, and listeners were required to indicate whether the target tone was higher or lower than its normal pitch. Task constraints, specifically target serial position uncertainty and the probabilistic relationship between time deviations and target tones, were varied in order to determine the impact of task constraints on temporal attending strategy. When listeners had no advance knowledge of the serial position of the target, and early and late targets provided information regarding target serial position, performance was better for early and late target trials than for on-time target trials (Experiment 1). When listeners had no advance knowledge of the serial position of the target, and early and late temporal deviations provided no information regarding target serial position, performance for late target trials was superior to that for early and on-time target trials (Experiment 2). Finally, when target serial position uncertainty was eliminated, performance was equivalent across all three levels of target timing (early, on time, late). The results indicate that performance profiles based on stimulus timing properties are affected by various task constraints as well as by stimulus properties.     

Proactive interference of a sequence of tones in a two-tone pitch comparison task

Subjects compared pitches of a standard tone and a comparison tone separated by 1,300–3,000 msec and responded according to whether the comparison tone sounded higher or lower in pitch than the standard tone. Three interfering tones at 300-msec intervals were presented before each pair of tones. Their pitch range varied, being either below or above the pitch of the standard tone; in some of the trials, their pitches were identical to the pitch of the standard tone (no interference). The highest error rate in performance was found when the interfering tones and the comparison tone deviated in the same direction in pitch from the standard tone. In turn, their deviations in the opposite directions resulted in the lowest error rate. This effect was not found to be dependent on whether the interfering tones were randomly ordered or monotonically ordered, together with the standard tone, into melodically ascending/descending sequences. An intermediate error rate in performance was found when the interfering tones and the standard tone were identical. The results support earlier hypotheses, presented in the context of retroactive interference, by demonstrating proactive interference of a tone sequence at the level of representations of individual tones.     

Temporal aspects of stimulus-driven attending in dynamic arrays

Auditory sequences of tones were used to examine a form of stimulus-driven attending that involves temporal expectancies and is influenced by stimulus rhythm. Three experiments examined the influence of sequence timing on comparative pitch judgments of two tones (standard, comparison) separated by interpolated pitches. In two of the experiments, interpolated tones were regularly timed, with onset times of comparison tones varied relative to this rhythm. Listeners were most accurate judging the pitch of rhythmically expected tones and least accurate with very unexpected ones. This effect persisted over time, but disappeared when the rhythm of interpolated tones was either missing or irregular.     

Disruption of Short term Recognition Memory for Tones: Streaming or Interference?

A sequence of auditory stimuli interpolated between the initial presentation of a tone and a comparisontone impairs recognition performance.Notably, the impairment is much lesswith interpolated speech than with tones. Six experiments converge on the conclusion that this pattern ofimpairment isdue more to the organization of the interpolated sequence than to its similarity to the to-be-remembered standard. Factors that contribute to the coherence of the interpolated sequence into a stream distinct from the initial tone are primary determinants of the level of impairment. This is demonstrated by manipulating factors that contribute to the coherence of the interpolated sequence by the action of temporal, spatial, timbral, and tonal attributes. However, the relative immunity of recognition performance to the interpolation of unprocessed digit sequences is not explained wholly by such coherence.     

Disinhibition in pitch memory

Recognition of the pitch of a tone is disrupted by the interpolation of other tones during the retention interval. The disruptive effect of an interpolated tone varies systematically as a function of its pitch relationship to the tone to be remembered, and is maximal at a 2/3-tone separation. When such a tone is interpolated, the interpolation in addition of a further tone that is 2/3 tone removed from this disruptive tone (and 4/3 tone removed from the tone to be remembered) causes recognition of the first tone substantially to return. When recognition performance is plotted as a function of the pitch relationship between these two interpolated tones, the results accord well with a model assuming mutual inhibitory interactions between pitch memory elements.     

Generality of interference by tonal stimuli in recognition memory for pitch

An investigation was made into the disruptive effects on pitch recognition produced by tones taken from beyond the octave from which the standard (S) and comparison (C) tones were taken. Pitch recognition was required after a retention interval during which eight other tones were played. Errors were compared for sequences in which the interpolated tones were taken from the same octave as were the S and C tones; in which they were taken from the octave above; in which they were taken from the octave below; and in which half of the intervening tones were taken from the octave above and the other half from the octave below, the order of choice of octave within the sequence being random. Large disruptive effects were produced by interpolated tones drawn from the higher and lower octaves, though these effects were slightly less than those produced by tones drawn from the same octave. The greatest disruptive effect occurred when the intervening tones in any one sequence were drawn from both the higher and the lower octaves. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Octave generalization of specific interference effects in memory for tonal pitch

An experiment is described which demonstrates that certain highly specific disruptive effects in immediate memory for tonal pitch generalize across octaves. Pitch recognition was required after a retention interval during which six other tones were played. The effects of including in the interpolated sequence tones which were removed by exactly an octave from those which had already been demonstrated to produce disruption were investigated. Generalization of these interference effects was found to result both from tones which were displaced an octave higher and (to a lesser extent) from tones which were displaced an octave lower. It is concluded that the memory store that retains information concerning the pitch of ifidividual tones is bidimensional in nature, both “tone height” and “tone chroma” being represented.     

Interference in pitch memory as a function of ear or input

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of spatial separation on interference effects in pitch memory. Subjects compared the pitches of two tones that were separated by a sequence of eight interpolated tones. It was found that error rates were lower in sequences where the test and interpolated tones were presented to different ears, compared with sequences where they were presented to the same ear; however, this effect of spatial separation was not large. It is concluded that differences in spatial location can enable the focussing of attention away from the irrelevant tones and so reduce their disruptive effect, but that this occurs only to a limited extent.     

Illusory conjunctions of pitch and duration in unfamiliar tone sequences

In 3 experiments, the authors examined short-term memory for pitch and duration in unfamiliar tone sequences. Participants were presented a target sequence consisting of 2 tones (Experiment 1) or 7 tones (Experiments 2 and 3) and then a probe tone. Participants indicated whether the probe tone matched 1 of the target tones in both pitch and duration. Error rates were relatively low if the probe tone matched 1 of the target tones or if it differed from target tones in pitch, duration, or both. Error rates were remarkably high, however, if the probe tone combined the pitch of 1 target tone with the duration of a different target tone. The results suggest that illusory conjunctions of these dimensions frequently occur. A mathematical model is presented that accounts for the relative contribution of pitch errors, duration errors, and illusory conjunctions of pitch and duration.     

Anchoring effects in music: The resolution of dissonance

Most pieces of music induce in the listener a sense that some pitches sound consonant, stable, or final, while others sound more dissonant, unstable, or transient. A psychological account of the intuition that the dissonance of an unstable tone is sometimes “resolved” by following it by a stable tone that is close in pitch is provided. The perceived hierarchy differentiating tones on the basis of stability may be construed as a cognitive schema, which facilitates the encoding of some tones relative to others. A cognitive principle, melodic anchoring, which specifies the ordered relationships (between tones) that govern (i) the activation of one tonal schema over another and (ii) the assimilation or anchoring of unstable tones to the tonal schema once it has been activated is presented. In a forcedchoice paradigm, the principle is invoked to predict which chord is perceived to “underlie” a sequence that is tonally ambiguous in all respects except the ordered relationships between its tones. In a same-different task, subjects were presented with a pair of tonal sequences. When a stable tone was replaced by an unstable tone, more confusions occurred when the latter was anchored than when it was not. The accuracy advantage when the unstable tone was in the comparison as opposed to the standard sequence was lower when the unstable tone was anchored than when it was not. Finally, subjects rated how well a sequence and a chord sounded together. Melodies that contained an unstable tone were given higher ratings when the unstable tone was anchored than when it was not. Each paradigm was used to demonstrate first immediate and then delayed anchoring.     

Quantification of the hierarchy of tonal functions within a diatonic context

Listeners rated test tones falling in the octave range from middle to high C according to how well each completed a diatonic C major scale played in an adjacent octave just before the final test tone. Ratings were well explained in terms of three factors. The factors were distance in pitch height from the context tones, octave equivalence, and the following hierarchy of tonal functions: tonic tone, other tones of the major triad chord, other tones of a diatonic scale, and the nondiatonic tones. In these ratings, pitch height was more prominent for less musical listeners or with less musical (sinusoidal) tones, whereas octave equivalence and the tonal hierarchy prevailed for musical listeners, especially with harmonically richer tones. Ratings for quarter tones interpolated halfway between the halftone steps of the standard chromatic scale were approximately the averages of ratings for adjacent chromatic tones, suggesting failure to discriminate tones at this fine level of division.     

Cross-octave masking of single tones and musical sequences: The effects of structure on auditory recognition

A series of experiments explored the role of structural information in the auditory recognition process, within the context of a backward recognition masking paradigm. A masking tone presented after a test tone has been found to interfere with the perceptual processing of the test tone, the degree of interference decreasing with increased durations of the silent intertone interval between the test and masking tones. In the current studies, the task was modified to utilize three-tone sequences as the test stimuli. Six test sequences were employed (LMH, LHM, MLH, MHL, HLM, HML), where L, M, and H represent the lowest, middle, and highest frequencies in the melody. The observers identified these six possible sequences when the three tones of the test sequence were interleaved with three presentations of a single masking tone. All three tones of the test sequence were drawn from the same octave, while the masking tones could be drawn from any of three octaves, symmetrical around the octave containing the test tones. Under these conditions, interference occurred primarily from masking tones drawn from the same octave as the test tones. Masking tones drawn from other octaves were found to produce little, if any, interference with perception of the test tones. This effect was found to occur only for the identification of tonal sequences. Substantial masking of single-tone targets occurred with masking tones drawn from octaves other than that containing the targets. The results make apparent the use of structural information during auditory recognition. A theoretical interpretation was advanced which suggests that, while single tones are perceived on the basis of absolute pitch, the presence of auditory structure may allow relational information, such as exact pitch intervals or melodic contour, to facilitate perception of the tonal sequence.     

Primacy, recency, and suffix effects in auditory short-term memory for pure tones: evidence from a probe recognition paradigm.

The present study was designed to explore serial position and suffix effects in the short-term retention of nonverbal sounds. In contrast with previous studies of these effects, a probe recognition paradigm was used to minimize the possibility that participants would use a verbal labelling strategy. On each trial, participants heard a memory set consisting of three pure tones, followed five seconds later by a probe tone. Participants were required to indicate whether or not the probe tone had been a member of the memory set. On most trials, a suffix sound was presented 1 second following the third sound in the memory set. Results revealed that tones presented in the first and last positions of the memory set were recognized more accurately than were tones presented in the middle position. Furthermore, recognition of sounds presented in the last position was compromised when the memory set was followed by a postlist suffix of similar pitch, spectral composition, and spatial location.     

Auditory stream segregation in Japanese monkeys.

Japanese monkeys were examined to determine whether they perceptually segregate tone sequences. Monkeys were required to discriminate two sequences of tones (target sequences) differing in frequency contours. Distractor sequences were presented simultaneously with the target sequences. Monkeys could discriminate the sequences when the frequency ranges of the target and distractor sequences did not overlap, but they could not when the ranges overlapped. Subsequent probe tests confirmed that the discrimination depended on cues other than the local pitch of the component tones regardless of the presence of the distractor sequence. The results suggest that monkeys segregate tone sequences based on frequency proximity, and they perceive global characters of the segregated streams.     

Hear it playing low and slow: How pitch level differentially influences time perception

Variations in both pitch and time are important in conveying meaning through speech and music, however, research is scant on perceptual interactions between these two domains. Using an ordinal comparison procedure, we explored how different pitch levels of flanker tones influenced the perceived duration of empty interstimulus intervals (ISIs). Participants heard monotonic, isochronous tone sequences (ISIs of 300, 600, or 1200 ms) composed of either one or five standard ISIs flanked by 500 Hz tones, followed by a final interval (FI) flanked by tones of either the same (500 Hz), higher (625 Hz), or lower (400 Hz) pitch. The FI varied in duration around the standard ISI duration. Participants were asked to determine if the FI was longer or shorter in duration than the preceding intervals. We found that an increase in FI flanker tone pitch level led to the underestimation of FI durations while a decrease in FI flanker tone pitch led to the overestimation of FI durations. The magnitude of these pitch-level effects decreased as the duration of the standard interval was increased, suggesting that the effect was driven by differences in mode-switch latencies to start/stop timing. Temporal context (One vs. Five Standard ISIs) did not have a consistent effect on performance. We propose that the interaction between pitch and time may have important consequences in understanding the ways in which meaning and emotion are communicated.     

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.     

Responsiveness of Western adults to pitch-distributional information in melodic sequences

Responsiveness of musically trained and untrained adults to pitch-distributional information in melodic contexts was assessed. In Experiment 1, melodic contexts were pure-tone sequences, generated from either a diatonic or one of four nondiatonic tonesets, in which pitch-distributional information was manipulated by variation of the relative frequency of occurrence of tones from the toneset. Both the assignment of relative frequency of occurrence to tones and the construction of the (fixed) temporal order of tones within the sequences contravened the conventions of western tonal music. A probe-tone technique was employed. Each presentation of a sequence was followed by a probe tone, one of the 12 chromatic notes within the octave. Listeners rated the goodness of musical fit of the probe tone to the sequence. Probe-tone ratings were significantly related to frequency of occurrence of the probe tone in the sequence for both trained and untrained listeners. In addition, probe-tone ratings decreased as the pitch distance between the probe tone and the final tone of the sequence increased. For musically trained listeners, probe-tone ratings for diatonic sequences tended also to reflect the influence of an internalized tonal schema. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the temporal location of tones in the sequences could not alone account for the effect of frequency of occurrence in Experiment 1. Experiment 3 tested musically untrained listeners under the conditions of Experiment 1, with the exception that the temporal order of tones in each sequence was randomized across trials. The effect of frequency of occurrence found in Experiment 1 was replicated and strengthened.     

Task integration as a factor in secondary-task effects on sequence learning

In several studies it has been found that implicit sequence learning is impaired by the concurrent performance of a secondary task. In most studies the task was to count high-pitched tones when high-pitched and low-pitched tones were presented in a random sequence. In this paper the hypothesis is examined that dual-task interference in the particular combination of tasks results from task integration, in particular from the learning of an integrated visual-auditory sequence in which every second (auditory) element is random. Instead of the tone-counting task a similar go/no-go task was used in which foot responses to high-pitched tones were performed. In Exp. 1 the sequence of tones was random in one condition, but in two other conditions repeated tone sequences of 5 and 6 elements were combined with visual sequences of 6 elements. Under dual-task test conditions, implicit learning of the visual as well as the auditory sequences was better with the auditory sequence of 6 elements than of 5 elements, while under single-task test conditions the nature of the tone sequence had no effect. In Exp. 2 the superior implicit learning with the 6-element sequence was replicated with different test procedures in which either the visual or auditory sequence was changed to random or in which the two sequences remained intact but were shifted by one element relative to each other. Randomization of the visual or auditory sequences not only impaired visual or auditory RT, respectively, but also impaired RT to stimuli in the other modality, and this cross-modal effect was almost as strong as the intra-modal effect of randomization. Finally, in Exp. 3 it was shown that integrated visual-auditory sequences are learned only when responses to both of them are required, but not when the tones can be neglected. These results are consistent with a conception of implicit learning as (at least partly) a basic and nonselective type of learning of all potentially behaviorally relevant relations between stimuli in the environment and one's own actions.     

Proactive interference in a two-tone pitch-comparison task without additional interfering tones

Two-tone pitch-comparison tasks typically comprise several successive pairs of successive tones separated by silent intervals. The serial occurrence of such pairs has been associated with degraded task performance, but the nature of this association is not fully understood. Human adult participants were presented with successive pairs of successive tones. The latter, to-be-compared tone of a pair could differ from the former, to-be-remembered tone of 1046.5 Hz by no more than ±15 Hz (25 cents). The direction of this difference was easier to identify when it was opposite to that of the preceding pair than when being the same. Merely responding accordingly (irrespectively of whether the response was correct or not) was found not to account for this finding. Our study demonstrates proactive interference in a two-tone pitch comparison task as the difficulty to remember when the first tone of the present pair occurred relative to the last tone of the immediately preceding pair.     

A bidimensional model of pitch in the recognition of melodies

Pitch can be conceptualized as a bidimensional quantity, reflecting both the overall pitch level of a tone (tone height) and its position in the octave (tone chroma). Though such a conceptualization has been well supported for perception of a single tone, it has been argued that the dimension of tone chroma is irrelevant in melodic perception. In the current study, melodies were subjected to structural transformations designed to evaluate the effects of interval magnitude, contour, tone height, and tone chroma. In two transformations, the component tones of a melody were displaced by octave intervals, either preserving or violating the pattern of changes in pitch direction (melodic contour). Replicating previous work, when contour was violated perception of the melody was severely disrupted. In contrast, when contour was preserved the melodies were identified as accurately as the untransformed melodies. In other transformations, a variety of forms of contour information were preserved, while eliminating information for absolute pitch and interval magnitude. The level of performance on all such transformations fell between the levels observed in the other two conditions. These results suggest that the bidimensional model of pitch is applicable to recognition of melodies as well as single tones. Moreover, the results argue that contour, as well as interval magnitude, is providing essential information for melodic perception.