Further investigation of harmonic priming in long contexts using musical timbre as surface marker to control for temporal effects

Harmonic priming studies have reported facilitated processing for chords that are harmonically related to the prime context. Responses to the target (the last chord of an 8-chord sequence) were faster and more accurate when the target was strongly related, i.e., a tonic chord, to the preceding prime context than when it was less related, i.e., a subdominant chord. Results have been interpreted in terms of musical expectations and processing speed: the prime allows listeners to develop expectations for future events which lead to facilitated processing of the most strongly expected event. The present experiment investigated an alternative hypothesis suggesting that the harmonic structure of the prime context might create an ambiguity about "when" to respond that is stronger in contexts ending on less related targets than in contexts ending on strongly related targets. A change of musical timbre was used as surface marker indicating without ambiguity the temporal occurrence of the target. Participants made speeded intonation judgments of the target, i.e., judging whether targets are acoustically consonant or dissonant. The findings replicate the previously reported priming effect and rule out that processing differences are solely due to ambiguities about when in time the target will occur.     

Repetition priming: Is music special?

Using short and long contexts, the present study investigated musical priming effects that are based on chord repetition and harmonic relatedness. A musical target (a chord) was preceded by either an identical prime or a different but harmonically related prime. In contrast to words, pictures, and environmental sounds, chord processing was not facilitated by repetition. Experiments 1 and 2 using single-chord primes showed either no significant difference between chord repetition and harmonic relatedness or facilitated processing for harmonically related targets. Experiment 3 using longer prime contexts showed that musical priming depended more on the musical function of the target in the preceding context than on target repetition. The effect of musical function was decreased, but not qualitatively changed, by chord repetition. The outcome of this study challenges predictions of sensory approaches and supports a cognitive approach of musical priming.     

Global context effect in normal and scrambled musical sequences

The processing of chords is facilitated when they are harmonically related to the context in which they appear. The purpose of this study was to assess whether this harmonic priming effect depends on the version (normal vs. scrambled) of the context chord sequences. Normal sequences were scrambled by permuting chords two-by-two (Experiment 1) or four-by-four (Experiments 2 and 3). Normal chord sequences were judged less coherent than scrambled sequences. However, normal chord sequences showed facilitation for harmonically related rather than for unrelated targets, and this effect of relatedness did not diminish for scrambled sequences (Experiments 1-3). The data of musicians and nonmusicians were interpreted with Bharucha's (1987) spreading activation framework. Simulations suggested that harmonic priming results from activation that spreads via schematic knowledge of Western harmony and accumulates in short-term memory over the course of the chord sequence.     

Reaction time and musical expectancy: priming of chords

The cognitive processes underlying musical expectation were explored by measuring reaction time in a priming paradigm. Subjects made a speeded true/false decision about a target chord following a prime chord to which it was either closely or distantly related harmonically. Using a major/minor decision task in Experiment 1, we found that major targets were identified faster, and with fewer errors, when they were related than when unrelated. An apparent absence (and possible reversal) of this effect for minor targets can be attributed to the prime's biasing effect on the target's stability. In Experiments 2 and 3 we tested this hypothesis by employing an in-tune/out-of-tune decision for major and minor targets separately. Both major and minor in-tune targets were identified faster when related than when unrelated. We outline a spreading activation model which consists of a network of harmonic relations. Priming results from the indirect activation of chord nodes linked through the network.     

The costs and benefits of tonal centers for chord processing

Harmonic priming studies have shown that a musical context, with its established tonal center, influences target chord processing. This study investigated costs and benefits of priming tonal centers for target processing by adding a baseline condition (sequences without a specific tonal center). Results confirmed harmonic priming, with faster processing for related than for unrelated and less related targets (tonic chord, out-of-key chord, subdominant chord). Comparing targets in baseline contexts with targets in sequences with well-established tonal centers revealed a benefit of processing for related targets but a cost of processing for unrelated and less related targets. Findings are discussed in terns of tonal knowledge activation and suggest that an activated tonal center gives rise to strong expectations for the tonic.     

Modularity in musical processing: the automaticity of harmonic priming

Three experiments investigated the modularity of harmonic expectations that are based on cultural schemata despite the availability of more predictive veridical information. Participants were presented with prime-target chord pairs and made an intonation judgment about each target. Schematic expectation was manipulated by the combination of prime and target, with some transitions being schematically more probable than others. Veridical information in the form of prime-target previews, local transition probabilities, or valid versus invalid previews was also provided. Processing was facilitated when a schematically probable target chord followed the prime. Furthermore, this effect was independent of all manipulations of veridical expectation. A solution to L. B. Meyer's (1967b) query "On Rehearing Music" is suggested, in which schematic knowledge contributes to harmonic expectation in a modular manner regardless of whether any veridical knowledge exists.     

Domain-specific learning of grammatical structure in musical and phonological sequences

Artificial grammar learning depends on acquisition of abstract structural representations rather than domain-specific representational constraints, or so many studies tell us. Using an artificial grammar task, we compared learning performance in two stimulus domains in which respondents have differing tacit prior knowledge. We found that despite grammatically identical sequence structures, learning was better for harmonically related chord sequences than for letter name sequences or harmonically unrelated chord sequences. We also found transfer effects within the musical and letter name tasks, but not across the domains. We conclude that knowledge acquired in implicit learning depends not only on abstract features of structured stimuli, but that the learning of regularities is in some respects domain-specific and strongly linked to particular features of the stimulus domain.     

Recognizing the component tones of a major chord.

Listeners judged whether a target tone was contained within a previously or subsequently presented major chord, and targets consisted of either the root, third, fifth, or tritone of the scale based on the root of the chords. Chord position influenced the relative recognition of targets, but listeners exhibited greater recognition of the fifth regardless of chord position (root, first inversion, second inversion). The data were not consistent with notions of root tracking or melody tracking. The data were broadly consistent with the notion that different chord positions may be harmonically equivalent (i.e., that listeners may recognize components of a chord regardless of chord position), with notions of analytic set and the importance of an instantiation of musical context for chord processing, and with the importance of the fifth in harmonic progression.     

Key distance effects on perceived harmonic structure in music

Two experiments provide convergent evidence for the hypothesis that listeners interpret chords in terms of their harmonic functions in a system of interrelated keys. The perceived associations between chords undergo significant changes depending on the broader tonal framework in which they are embedded. Three independent context effects are identified, and their magnitude is found to be a systematic function of the distance between the context key and the key lot keys) of which the chords are members. In the first experiment, listeners rate how musically related one chord is to a second chord; the chords are those that function within two maximally distant major keys (C major and F# major). All possible chord pairs from this set are presented in each of three context keys: G major which is close to C major and distant from F# major), A major (which is moderately distant from both C major and F# major), and B major (which is close to F# major and distant from C major). The second experiment measures recognition memory for the same chords embedded in tonal sequences in C, G, A, or B major keys, or random sequences. In the two experiments, the distance between the context key and the key of the chords on the circle-of-fifths affects: (1) the probability that a repeated chord is correctly recognized, (2) the strength of association between chords from the same key measured in terms of both confusion errors and direct relatedness judgments, and (3) asymmetries in confusion errors and relatedness judgments when the chords are in different keys. Perceived harmonic relations are thus found to be strongly context dependent, but the context effects are lawful functions of interkey distance. We conclude that listeners possess a highly articulated system of knowledge about the harmonic functions of chords in musical keys and an appreciation of musical structure at the level of abstract tonal centers.     

Musical structure modulates semantic priming in vocal music

It has been shown that harmonic structure may influence the processing of phonemes whatever the extent of participants' musical expertise [Bigand, E., Tillmann, B., Poulin, B., D'Adamo, D. A., & Madurell, F. (2001). The effect of harmonic context on phoneme monitoring in vocal music. Cognition, 81, B11-B20]. The present study goes a step further by investigating how musical harmony may potentially interfere with the processing of words in vocal music. Eight-chord sung sentences were presented, their last word being either semantically related (La girafe a un tres grand cou, The giraffe has a very long neck) or unrelated to the previous linguistic context (La girafe a un tres grand pied, The giraffe has a very long foot). The target word was sung on a chord that acted either as a referential tonic chord or as a congruent but less referential subdominant chord. Participants performed a lexical decision task on the target word. A significant interaction was observed between semantic and harmonic relatedness suggesting that music modulates semantic priming in vocal music. Following Jones' dynamic attention theory, we argue that music can modulate semantic priming in vocal music, by modifying the allocation of attentional resource necessary for linguistic computation.     

Time course of chord priming

The time course of chord priming was explored in four experiments. In chord priming, a chord (a typical combination of simultaneously sounded tones) primes other chords that are musically related. In the present study, the prime duration and the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the prime chord and the chord to be judged were varied. Priming occurred at an SOA and prime duration as short as 50 msec, the shortest tested. When the prime duration was held constant at 50 msec, priming occurred at an SOA as long as 2,500 msec, the longest tested, and the magnitude of the priming effect did not diminish. To eliminate a possible role of sensory memory in maintaining the priming effect during the silence following the prime, a 250-msec noise mask was presented immediately following the 50-msec prime. The interpolated noise mask did not eliminate priming, thereby supporting the view that chord priming is the consequence of associative activation.     

Time course of chord priming.

The time course of chord priming was explored in four experiments. In chord priming, a chord (a typical combination of simultaneously sounded tones) primes other chords that are musically related. In the present study, the prime duration and the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the prime chord and the chord to be judged were varied. Priming occurred at an SOA and prime duration as short as 50 msec, the shortest tested. When the prime duration was held constant at 50 msec, priming occurred at an SOA as long as 2,500 msec, the longest tested, and the magnitude of the priming effect did not diminish. To eliminate a possible role of sensory memory in maintaining the priming effect during the silence following the prime, a 250-msec noise mask was presented immediately following the 50-msec prime. The interpolated noise mask did not eliminate priming, thereby supporting the view that chord priming is the consequence of associative activation.     

Repetition blindness depends on perceptual capture and token individuation failure

A visual prime succeeded by a brief target produces a paradox. Namely, target repetition yields poorer identification accuracy and shorter duration judgments than unrelated prime-target pairs. Experiment 1 manipulated stimulus onset asynchrony to learn when repetition blindness is maximized. Experiments 2 and 3 manipulated expectancy of repetitions through changes in the proportion of repeated trials and instructions, respectively. Results indicate that repetition blindness is influenced by subject strategies and that the change is not mediated by response bias. Experiment 4 showed that increasing the spatial distance between prime and target reduced but did not eliminate repetition blindness. The current data support joint explanation of repetition blindness in terms of perceptual capture (prime-target fusion) and token individuation failure (problems in encoding episodic reoccurrences of an event).     

Recognition by association: Within‐ and cross‐modality associative priming with faces and voices

Recent literature has raised the suggestion that voice recognition runs in parallel to face recognition. As a result, a prediction can be made that voices should prime faces and faces should prime voices. A traditional associative priming paradigm was used in two studies to explore within‐modality priming and cross‐modality priming. In the within‐modality condition where both prime and target were faces, analysis indicated the expected associative priming effect: The familiarity decision to the second target celebrity was made more quickly if preceded by a semantically related prime celebrity, than if preceded by an unrelated prime celebrity. In the cross‐modality condition, where a voice prime preceded a face target, analysis indicated no associative priming when a 3‐s stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was used. However, when a relatively longer SOA was used, providing time for robust recognition of the prime, significant cross‐modality priming emerged. These data are explored within the context of a unified account of face and voice recognition, which recognizes weaker voice processing than face processing.     

A grammar of action generates predictions in skilled musicians

The present study investigates shared representations of syntactic knowledge in music and action. We examined whether expectancy violations in musical harmonic sequences are also perceived as violations of the movement sequences necessary to produce them. Pianists imitated silent videos showing one hand playing chord sequences on a muted keyboard. Results indicate that, despite the absence of auditory feedback, imitation of a chord is fastest when it is congruent with the preceding harmonic context. This suggests that the harmonic rules implied by observed actions induce expectations that influence action execution. As evidence that these predictions are derived at a high representational level, imitation was more accurate for harmonically incongruent chords than for congruent chords executed with unconventional fingering. The magnitude of the effects of context and goal prioritization increased with musical training. Thus, musical training may lead to a domain-general representation of musical grammar, i.e., to a grammar of action.     

On obtaining episodic priming in a lexical decision task following paired-associate learning

In four experiments, subjects made lexical (word-nonword) decisions to target letter strings after studying paired associates. In this lexical decision test, word targets previously studied as response terms in the paired associates were preceded at a 150-ms and/or 950-ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) by one of various subsets of the following six types of primes: a neutral (XXX or ready) prime, a semantically unrelated word prime episodically related to the target through its having been previously studied in the same pair, a semantically related word prime previously studied in a pair with some other unrelated word, a semantically unrelated word prime previously studied in a pair with some other unrelated word, a nonstudied semantically related word prime, and a nonstudied semantically unrelated word prime. At the 950-ms SOA, facilitation of lexical decisions produced by the episodically related primes was greater in test lists in which there were no 150-ms SOA trials intermixed, no previously studied semantically related primes, and no studied nonword targets. At the 150-ms SOA, facilitation from episodic priming was greater in test lists in which there were no semantically related primes and all studied word targets and no studied nonword targets. Facilitation effects from semantically related primes were small in magnitude and occurred inconsistently. Discussion focused on the implications these results have for the episodic-semantic memory distinction and the automaticity of episodic and semantic priming effects.     

The effect of harmonic context on phoneme monitoring in vocal music

The processing of a target chord depends on the previous musical context in which it has appeared. This harmonic priming effect occurs for fine syntactic-like changes in context and is observed irrespective of the extent of participants' musical expertise (Bigand & Pineau, Perception and Psychophysics, 59 (1997) 1098). The present study investigates how the harmonic context influences the processing of phonemes in vocal music. Eight-chord sequences were presented to participants. The four notes of each chord were played with synthetic phonemes and participants were required to quickly decide whether the last chord (the target) was sung on a syllable containing the phoneme /i/ or /u/. The musical relationship of the target chord to the previous context was manipulated so that the target chord acted as a referential tonic chord or as a congruent but less structurally important subdominant chord. Phoneme monitoring was faster for the tonic chord than for the subdominant chord. This finding has several implications for music cognition and speech perception. It also suggests that musical and phonemic processing interact at some stage of processing.     

Priming effects on musical chord identification: Facilitation or disruption?

The present study examined whether priming effects on chord identification are facilitative or disruptive, by employing a control (no‐prime) condition in addition to a related‐prime condition and an unrelated‐prime condition. According to the activation hypothesis, which predicts a facilitative effect of musically related chords, responses are expected to be faster in the related‐prime condition than in the control condition. In contrast, according to the schema hypothesis, which supposes a disruptive effect of musically unrelated chords, responses are expected to be slower in the unrelated‐prime condition than in the control condition. No facilitative effect was found in the related‐prime condition, whereas a marked disruptive effect was found in the unrelated‐prime condition. The disruptive effect was more pronounced in the major‐chord condition than in the minor‐chord condition, and more salient at an interonset interval of 1 s than at 3 s or 7 s. These results are interpreted in terms of the schema hypothesis.     

Tonal centers and expectancy: facilitation or inhibition of chords at the top of the harmonic hierarchy?

Harmonic priming studies have shown that a musical context with its tonal center influences target chord processing. In comparison with targets following baseline contexts, which do not establish a specific tonal center, processing is facilitated for a strongly related target functioning as the tonic, but inhibited for unrelated (out-of-key) and less related (subdominant) targets. This study investigated cost and benefit patterns for the processing of the 3 most important chords of the harmonic hierarchy. Response time patterns reflected the chords' ranking: Processing was fastest for the tonic, followed by the dominant, and then the subdominant. The comparison with baseline contexts replicated the benefit of processing for tonic targets (Experiments 1 and 3) and the cost of processing for subdominant targets (Experiment 3), while dominant targets were situated at baseline level (Experiments 1 to 3). Findings indicate that listeners implicitly understand fine differences in tonal stabilities and confirm the special status of the tonic being the most expected and solely facilitated chord at the end of a tonal context. Findings are discussed with references to sensory and cognitive approaches of music perception.     

Semantic interference from visual object recognition on visual imagery

A new technique for examining the interaction between visual object recognition and visual imagery is reported. The "image-picture interference" paradigm requires participants to generate and make a response to a mental image of a previously memorized object, while ignoring a simultaneously presented picture distractor. Responses in 2 imagery tasks (making left-right higher spatial judgments and making taller-wider judgments) were longer when the simultaneous picture distractor was categorically related to the target distractor relative to unrelated and neutral target-distractor combinations. In contrast, performance was not influenced in this way when the distractor was a related word, when a semantic categorization decision was made to the target, or when distractor and target were visually but not categorically related to one another. The authors discuss these findings in terms of the semantic representations shared by visual object recognition and visual imagery that mediate performance.