Expectancy in melody: tests of children and adults

Melodic expectancies among children and adults were examined. In Experiment 1, adults, 11-year-olds, and 8-year-olds rated how well individual test tones continued fragments of melodies. In Experiment 2, 11-, 8-, and 5-year-olds sang continuations to 2-tone stimuli. Response patterns were analyzed using 2 models of melodic expectancy. Despite having fewer predictor variables, the 2-factor model (E. G. Schellenberg, 1997) equaled or surpassed the implication-realization model (E. Narmour, 1990) in predictive accuracy. Listeners of all ages expected the next tone in a melody to be proximate in pitch to the tone heard most recently. Older listeners also expected reversals of pitch direction, specifically for tones that changed direction after a disruption of proximity and for tones that formed symmetric patterns.     

Memory for surface features of unfamiliar melodies: independent effects of changes in pitch and tempo

A melody’s identity is determined by relations between consecutive tones in terms of pitch and duration, whereas surface features (i.e., pitch level or key, tempo, and timbre) are irrelevant. Although surface features of highly familiar recordings are encoded into memory, little is known about listeners’ mental representations of melodies heard once or twice. It is also unknown whether musical pitch is represented additively or interactively with temporal information. In two experiments, listeners heard unfamiliar melodies twice in an initial exposure phase. In a subsequent test phase, they heard the same (old) melodies interspersed with new melodies. Some of the old melodies were shifted in key, tempo, or key and tempo. Listeners’ task was to rate how well they recognized each melody from the exposure phase while ignoring changes in key and tempo. Recognition ratings were higher for old melodies that stayed the same compared to those that were shifted in key or tempo, and detrimental effects of key and tempo changes were additive in between-subjects (Experiment 1) and within-subjects (Experiment 2) designs. The results confirm that surface features are remembered for melodies heard only twice. They also imply that key and tempo are processed and stored independently.     

The perception of interleaved melodies

If the notes of two melodies whose pitch ranges do not overlap are interleaved in time so that successive tones come from the different melodies, the resulting sequence of tones is perceptually divided into groups that correspond to the two melodies. Such “melodic fission” demonstrates perceptual grouping based on pitch alone, and has been used extensively in music.Experiment I showed that the identification of interleaved pairs of familiar melodies is possible if their pitch ranges do not overlap, but difficult otherwise. A short-term recognition-memory paradigm (Expt II) showed that interleaving a “background” melody with an unfamiliar melody interferes with same-different judgments regardless of the separation of their pitch ranges, but that range separation attenuates the interference effect. When pitch ranges overlap, listeners can overcome the interference effect and recognize a familiar target melody if the target is prespecified, thereby permitting them to search actively for it (Expt III). But familiarity or prespecification of the interleaved background melody appears not to reduce its interfering effects on same-different judgments concerning unfamiliar target melodies (Expt IV).     

Tonal expectations influence pitch perception

In this study, we investigated the influence of tonal relatedness on pitch perception in melodies. Tonal expectations for target tones were manipulated in melodic contexts while controlling sensory expectations, thus allowing us to assess specifically the influence oftonal expectations on pitch perception. Three experimentsprovided converging evidence that tonal relatedness modulates pitch perception in nonmusician listeners. Experiment 1 showed, with a rating task, the influence of the tonal relatedness of a target tone on listeners' judgments of tuning/mistuning. Experiment 2 showed, with a priming task, that pitch processing of in-tune tones was faster for tonally related targets than for less related targets. Experiment 3 showed, with a comparison task, that discrimination performance for small mistunings was better when the to-be-compared tones were tonally related to the melodic context. Findings are discussed in relation to psychoacoustic research on contextual pitch perception and to studies showing facilitation of early processing steps via knowledge- and attention-related processes.     

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.     

Harmonic,melodic, and frequency height influences in the perception of multivoiced music

Two experiments addressed the influences of harmonic relations, melody location, and relative frequency height on the perceptual organization of multivoiced music. In Experiment 1, listeners detected pitch changes in multivoiced piano music. Harmonically related pitch changes and those in the middle-frequency range were least noticeable. All pitch changes were noticeable in the high-frequency voice containing the melody (the most important voice), suggesting that melody can dominate harmonic relations. However, the presence of upper partials in the piano timbre used may have accounted for the harmonic effects. Experiment 2 employed pure sine tones, and replicated the effects of Experiment 1. In addition, the influence of the high-frequency melody on the noticeability of harmonically related pitches was lessened by the presence of a second melody. These findings suggest that harmonic, melodic, and relative frequency height relationships among voices interact in the perceptual organization of multivoiced music.     

The emotional meaning of harmonic intervals

The present study reexamines the hypothesis that there exist emotional attributions specific to simple musical elements. In Experiment 1, groups of participants, with varying musical expertise, rated the emotional meaning of four natural intervals heard as two harmonic sine waves. In Experiment 2, the higher tone was kept constant at an octave above the low tone used in Experiment 1, while the lower tone was constant. Attributions for each interval were positively correlated from one experimental session to another; despite the intervals differed in terms of their component pitches. Musicians gave the most reliable choices of meaning. In a third experiment, participants rated the emotional meaning of various unfamiliar ethnic melodies with expressions describing the intervals’ meaning based on the results of Experiment 1 and 2. There were distinct profiles of emotional meanings for each melody and these coincided with the meaning of intervals that constituted the surface and deep structure of each melody. The intervallic structures (i.e., the main intervals of the tunes) and respective chords for each melody were also presented aurally and participants’ ratings showed similar emotional profiles for these when compared to those of the melodies themselves.     

Schema-based processing in auditory scene analysis

What is the involvement of what we know in what we perceive? In this article, the contribution of melodic schema-based processes to the perceptual organization of tone sequences is examined. Two unfamiliar six-tone melodies, one of which was interleaved with distractor tones, were presented successively to listeners who were required to decide whether the melodies were identical or different. In one condition, the comparison melody was presented after the mixed sequence: a target melody interleaved with distractor tones. In another condition, it was presented beforehand, so that the listeners had precise knowledge about the melody to be extracted from the mixture. In the latter condition, recognition performance was better and a bias toward same responses was reduced, as compared with the former condition. A third condition, in which the comparison melody presented beforehand was transposed up in frequency, revealed that whereas the performance improvement was explained in part by absolute pitch or frequency priming, relative pitch representation (interval and/or contour structure) may also have played a role. Differences in performance as a function of mean frequency separation between target and distractor sequences, when listeners did or did not have prior knowledge about the target melody, argue for a functional distinction between primitive and schema-based processes in auditory scene analysis.     

Negative priming from masked words: retrospective prime clarification of center-surround inhibition?

Masked repetition and semantic priming effects were examined in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, a masked-prime lexical decision task followed a phase of detection, semantic, or repetition judgments about masked words. In Experiment 2 participants made speeded pronunciations to target words after they tried to identify masked primes, and the proportion of semantically and identically related prime-target pairs was varied. Center-surround theory CT. H. Carr & D. Dagenbach, 1990; D. Dagenbach, T. H. Carr, & A. Wilhelmsen, 1989) predicts positive repetition priming but negative semantic priming when people attempt, but fail, to extract the meanings of masked words. A retrospective prime-clarification account, in contrast, predicts that semantic and repetition priming effects will vary (being positive or negative) as a function of expectations about the prime-target relation. The data support a retrospective prime-clarification account, which, unlike center-surround theory, correctly predicted negative repetition priming effects.     

Context sensitivity and invariance in perception of octave-ambiguous tones

Three experiments investigated the influence of unambiguous (UA) context tones on the perception of octave-ambiguous (OA) tones. In Experiment 1, pairs of OA tones spanning a tritone interval were preceded by pairs of UA tones instantiating a rising or falling interval between the same pitch classes. Despite the inherent ambiguity of OA tritone pairs, most participants showed little or no priming when judging the OA tritone as rising or falling. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants compared the pitch heights of single OA and UA tones representing either the same pitch class or being a tritone apart. These judgments were strongly influenced by the pitch range of the UA tones, but only slightly by the spectral center of the OA tones. Thus, the perceived pitch height of single OA tones is context sensitive, but the perceived relative pitch height of two OA tones, as described in previous research on the “tritone paradox,” is largely invariant in UA tone contexts.     

Action–effect congruence during observational learning leads to faster action sequence learning

Common coding theory suggests that any action (pressing a piano key) is intimately linked with its resultant sensory effect (an auditory musical tone). We conducted two experiments to explore the effect of varying auditory action–effect patterns during complex action learning. In Experiment 1, participants were assigned to 1 of 4 groups, watched a silent video of a hand playing a sequence on a piano keyboard with no auditory action effect (observation) and were asked to practise and perform the sequence on an identical keyboard with varying action effects (reproduction). During reproduction, Group 1 heard no auditory tones (identical to observed video), Group 2 heard typical scale-ascending piano tones with each key press, Group 3 heard fixed but out-of-sequence piano tones with each key press, and Group 4 heard random piano tones with each key press. In Experiment two, new participants were assigned to 1 of 2 groups and watched an identical video; however, the video in this experiment contained typical, scale-ascending piano sounds. During reproduction, Group 1 heard no auditory tones while Group 2 heard typical, scale-ascending piano tones with each key press (identical to observed video). Our results showed that participants whose action–effect patterns during reproduction matched those in the observed video learned the action sequence faster than participants whose action–effect patterns during reproduction differed from those in the observed video. Additionally, our results suggest that adding an effect during reproduction (when one is absent during observation) is somewhat more detrimental to action sequence learning than removing an effect during reproduction (when one is present during observation).     

Time judgments of musical endings: Effects of expectancies on the “filled interval effect”

In two experiments, the influence of musical endings on duration judgments was examined. In Experiment 1, subjects were asked to compare the duration of paired folk tunes that could vary in their degree of resolution. Results showed that melodies ending on the leading tone interval were underestimated relative to songs ending on the conventional tonic. Experiment 2 further revealed that time estimates were influenced by a melody’s preceding temporal accent structure. Melodies ending earlier than expected were judged significantly shorter, particularly when the tune ended on the leading-tone interval. Conversely, tonic endings were judged substantially longer when they appeared to occur “too late” in time. Results are discussed in terms of a contrast model which emphasizes the role of expectancies on duration judgments     

Ideomotor effects of pitch on continuation tapping

The ideomotor principle predicts that perception will modulate action where overlap exists between perceptual and motor representations of action. This effect is demonstrated with auditory stimuli. Previous perceptual evidence suggests that pitch contour and pitch distance in tone sequences may elicit tonal motion effects consistent with listeners' implicit awareness of the lawful dynamics of locomotive bodies. To examine modulating effects of perception on action, participants in a continuation tapping task produced a steady tempo. Auditory tones were triggered by each tap. Pitch contour randomly and persistently varied within trials. Pitch distance between successive tones varied between trials. Although participants were instructed to ignore them, tones systematically affected finger dynamics and timing. Where pitch contour implied positive acceleration, the following tap and the intertap interval (ITI) that it completed were faster. Where pitch contour implied negative acceleration, the following tap and the ITI that it completed were slower. Tempo was faster with greater pitch distance. Musical training did not predict the magnitude of these effects. There were no generalized effects on timing variability. Pitch contour findings demonstrate how tonal motion may elicit the spontaneous production of accents found in expressive music performance.     

Best face forward: Similarity effects in repetition priming of face recognition

Two experiments examined the graded similarity effect in the repetition priming of familiar face recognition. From the model of repetition priming proposed by Burton, Bruce, and Johnston (1990) it was predicted that similarity effects may be a confound of stimulus preparation. Experiment 1 was used to discount this hypothesis, but failed to replicate a pattern of graded priming related to the similarity of prime and target faces. Experiment 2 attempted a more extensive investigation using two different measures of prime-target similarity. The results replicated Ellis, Young, Flude, and Hay's (1987) finding that similar primes confer more priming than dissimilar ones, but found no correlation between amount of priming and the degree of prime-target resemblance for either similarity metric used. In view of these findings the mechanism of repetition priming in familiar face recognition is discussed.     

Specific previous experience affects perception of harmony and meter

Prior knowledge shapes our experiences, but which prior knowledge shapes which experiences? This question is addressed in the domain of music perception. Three experiments were used to determine whether listeners activate specific musical memories during music listening. Each experiment provided listeners with one of two musical contexts that was presented simultaneously with a melody. After a listener was familiarized with melodies embedded in contexts, the listener heard melodies in isolation and judged the fit of a final harmonic or metrical probe event. The probe event matched either the familiar (but absent) context or an unfamiliar context. For both harmonic (Experiments 1 and 3) and metrical (Experiment 2) information, exposure to context shifted listeners' preferences toward a probe matching the context that they had been familiarized with. This suggests that listeners rapidly form specific musical memories without explicit instruction, which are then activated during music listening. These data pose an interesting challenge for models of music perception which implicitly assume that the listener's knowledge base is predominantly schematic or abstract.     

The representation of pitch in auditory imagery: Evidence from S-R compatibility and distance effects

In three experiments we explored the nature of representations constructed during the perception and imagination of pitch. We employed a same–different task to eliminate the influence of nonauditory information and to minimise use of cognitive strategies on auditory imagery. A reference tone of frequency 1000, 1500, or 2000 Hz, or an imagined tone of a pitch indicated by a visual cue, was followed by a comparison tone (1000, 1500, or 2000 Hz) to which either a speeded same or different response was required. In separate experiments, same–different judgements were mapped to vertically (Experiments 1 and 2) and horizontally arranged responses (Experiment 3). Judgements of tones closer in pitch yielded longer reaction times and higher error rates than more distant tones, indicating a pitch distance effect for perceptual and imagery tasks alike. In addition, in the imagery task, same–different responses were faster when low-pitched tones demanded a bottom or left key response and high-pitched tones a top or right response than vice versa, suggesting that pitch is coded spatially. Together, these behavioural effects support the assumption that both perceived and imagined pitch are translated into an analogical representation in the spatial domain.     

“Deafness” effects in detecting alterations to auditory feedback during sequence production

Past research has shown that when discrete responses are associated with a perceptual goal, performers may have difficulty detecting stimuli that are commensurate with that goal. Three experiments are reported here that test whether such effects extend to sequence production. In Experiment 1, participants performed 8-note melodies repeatedly, and on each trial a single tone could be altered with respect to its pitch and/or synchrony with actions. Results suggested a selective deficit of detection when feedback pitch was unchanged and the event was slightly delayed. Experiment 2 showed that this “deafness” to feedback is limited to rhythmic motor tasks that require sequencing, in that similar effects did not emerge when participants produced pitch sequences by tapping a single key repeatedly. A third experiment demonstrated similar results to Experiment 1 when the mapping of keys to pitches on the keyboard was reversed. Taken together, results suggest a selective deafness to response-congruent delayed feedback, consistent with the idea that performers suppress previously planned events during production.     

A PRP-study to determine the locus of target priming effects

Visual stimuli that are made invisible by a following mask can nonetheless affect motor responses. To localize the origin of these target priming effects we used the psychological refractory period paradigm. Participants classified tones as high or low, and responded to the position of a visual target that was preceded by a prime. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between both tasks varied. In Experiment 1 the tone task was followed by the position task and SOA dependent target priming effects were observed. When the visual position task preceded the tone task in Experiment 2, with short SOA the priming effect propagated entirely to the tone task yielding faster responses to tones on visually congruent trials and delayed responses to tones on visually incongruent trials. Together, results suggest that target priming effects arise from processing before and at the level of the central bottleneck such as sensory analysis and response selection.     

Play it again: did this melody occur more frequently or was it heard more recently? The role of stimulus familiarity in episodic recognition of music

Episodic recognition of novel and familiar melodies was examined by asking participants to make judgments about the recency and frequency of presentation of melodies over the course of two days of testing. For novel melodies, recency judgments were poor and participants often confused the number of presentations of a melody with its day of presentation; melodies heard frequently were judged as have been heard more recently than they actually were. For familiar melodies, recency judgments were much more accurate and the number of presentations of a melody helped rather than hindered performance. Frequency judgments were generally more accurate than recency judgments and did not demonstrate the same interaction with musical familiarity. Overall, these findings suggest that (1) episodic recognition of novel melodies is based more on a generalized "feeling of familiarity" than on a specific episodic memory, (2) frequency information contributes more strongly to this generalized memory than recency information, and (3) the formation of an episodic memory for a melody depends either on the overall familiarity of the stimulus or the availability of a verbal label.     

绝对音高感对音乐句法加工能力的影响

绝对音高感是一种敏锐的音高知觉能力。拥有这种能力的人可以在没有标准音(A4)参照下, 对所听到的音高进行命名。本文通过对比绝对音高感被试与不具有绝对音高感被试对音乐句法基本规则的知觉以及对音乐句法结构划分能力的差异, 探讨绝对音高感与音乐句法加工能力之间的关系。结果表明, 绝对音高感被试对音乐句法基本规则的知觉水平高于控制组; 同时, 这种知觉上的优势也延伸到他们对音乐句法结构的划分。这一结果说明, 绝对音高感被试不仅可以对音高进行孤立命名, 而且表现出对调性音乐音高关系加工的优势。