Vocal mistuning reveals the origin of musical scales

ABSTRACT

Theories of the origin of tonality from the time of Pythagoras onward have assumed that the intervals used in musical scales are defined mathematically based on harmonic ratios. Virtually all such theories are predicated on tunable instruments (e.g. strings), whereas the voice is the most ancestral and universal instrument used to make music. In the present study, we analysed the tuning of sung musical intervals from a familiar song, doing so across both trained and untrained singers. Contrary to the predictions of traditional theories, we found that sung intervals (unlike those of instruments) showed marked overlap with neighbouring interval categories. Furthermore, we found that listeners of these sung productions did not base their aesthetic judgments of singing quality on the precision of tuning of sung intervals. We consolidate these results into a model of tonality based on both vocal and sensory factors that contribute to the formation of sung melodies.     

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.     

Familiarity,relative distinctiveness,and the generation effect

In Experiment 1, psychology experts and novices showed generation effects with both psychology related and other words. In Experiment 2, music experts who were sports novices and sports experts who were music novices showed a generation effect in a recognition test for all words regardless of domain (music or sports). Moreover, the effect was greater for words from the subjects’ “nonexpertise” area. In Experiments 3A and 3B, music experts showed a greater generation effect for sports words than for music words in a free recall test but only when the sports and music words were studied together. These results are inconsistent with the semantic elaboration -requirement for the generation effect that predicts less of an effect, if any, with less familiar materials. Rather, they provide evidence for the idea that the generation effect is influenced by relative distinctiveness of the to-be-remembered items.     

不同类型美感体验的自主反应特点

不同美感体验类型有何特异的生理反应？美感的生理反应是否类似于积极情绪？本研究以音乐和图片两类材料为刺激,以心率、皮肤电为生理反应指标,测量了不同审美状态下的自主生理反应情况。结果发现：不论是听觉还是视觉通道,优美、壮美、悲剧、喜剧4种审美风格的刺激都使被试心率和皮肤电下降;不同的美感形态所引起的反应不同,喜剧和壮美风格刺激诱发的自主生理反应变化相对于其他两种风格显得更明显,喜剧风格效果尤为突出;不同美感体验类型特异生理反应具有跨通道的一致性;四种美感体验类型的生理反应都不同于消极情绪,而类似积极情绪,从生理反应视角证明了美感体验递属于积极情绪。     

Mood, recall, and selectivity effects in normal college students

In three experiments we explored the relation between normal variation in depressed mood and memory in college students. Subjects read and subsequently recalled stories whose protagonists experienced good, bad, and neutral events. Contrary to predictions arising independently from capacity theory and from schema theory, the recall of depressed and nondepressed subjects did not differ in either overall level or in affective content. The results are not easily handled by a conceptualization of depression, tied to schema theory, which proposes that negative cognitions are important for the initiation and maintenance of depression. The general usefulness of induction procedures in research on the depressive syndrome is discussed.     

Body Dissatisfaction in Women and Men: The Role of Gender-Typing and Self-Esteem

Body dissatisfaction was studied in 589 predominately middle class, European American, college students, classified as masculine-typed, feminine-typed, androgynous, or undifferentiated using the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. Body dissatisfaction was defined as the discrepancy between a drawing selected as describing the individual's body and their selection of drawings representing: (1) their ideal body; (2) the body they believed members of their sex preferred; and (3) the body they believed members of the opposite sex preferred. Two separate studies found that women classified as feminine-typed or undifferentiated were more dissatisfied with their bodies than were women classified as masculine-typed or androgynous. Similar results were found for men. Both studies also found that women, regardless of gender-type, had thin ideals and greatly overestimated male preferences for slender female bodies. The theoretical implications of these results for gender schema theory and two other theories of gender typing were discussed. It was concluded that it is unnecessary to appeal to complex theories of gender-mediated socialization in order to explain differences in body dissatisfaction in women or men. Instead, these differences are most parsimoniously understood as the consequences of differences in global self-esteem.     

Rhythm perception and differences in accent weights for musicians and nonmusicians

In order to investigate the contribution of harmonic—temporal and structural features to the perception of musical rhythm, three experiments were conducted in which a harmonic and a temporal accent were pitted against each other in such a way as to form five possible patterns. In three experiments, the temporal structure of various chord progressions was manipulated in an effort to determine the harmonic contributions to the inference of meter. The final experiment differed from the first two in the use of nondiatonic progressions that implied an unlikely key modulation. In all experiments, musicians and nonmusicians were requested to report perceived rhythm patterns in an attempt to determine the relative salience of various accents. Results indicated that changes in the temporal structure led to predictable change in an inferred meter, and that all diatonic chord progressions led to similar patterns of responses in which coincidences of harmonic, temporal, and metrical accents were perceptually salient events. Unusual progressions implying key modulations resulted in a qualitatively distinct pattern of results, and, in all experiments, amount of formal musical training was found to be a good predictor of the use of harmonic cues.     

La musica contemporanea statunitense e i suoi elementi fenomenologici

This article seek to highlight the aspects — explicit or implicit — that indicate the close attention paid by much American musicology of this century to the phenomenological level of musical events or, more generally, of the sound event. Starting from general considerations on American music and some of its protagonists, the article focuses on Elliott Carter, on his poetics, and on his theories expressed in his writings.Carter's compositional choices and his consciousness of the intrinsic complexity they assume theoretically provide a starting point for a phenomenological study of many aspects of compositional experience: from consideration of instrumental language with its structural phenomenological (and historical) implications, to more global evaluation of the centrality of temporal and rhythmic subjects.Carter's music corresponds to the theories of many American phenomenologists of music. This also proves the community of interests evident in United States both in music and phenomenological theories.     

Responses to Music in a Dining Area1

Berlyne's theory of aesthetic response was tested in an ecologically valid setting by playing music in a university cafeteria. Four music conditions were employed representing low, high, and moderate complexity new age music, and moderate complexity mechanical organ music. Response measures were how readily diners cited the music as an aspect of the environment which they might like to change, and how much they liked the music. Liking for the new age extracts was consistent with Berlyne's theory, although liking for the moderate complexity mechanical organ music indicated that factors other than complexity may also determine musical preference. As dislike became more extreme, music became more salient as a feature of the environment that subjects might like to change.     

音乐句法加工的认知机制与音乐结构的影响模式

音乐和语言是人类最重要的两种交流系统。与语言一样, 音符的排列和组织也是建立在一定的句法规则之上。尽管现有研究发现听众具有感知音乐句法的能力, 音乐句法加工的认知机制以及影响因素仍不清楚。基于此, 拟深入探究预期和整合在音乐音高句法加工中的作用, 以及音乐层级结构和时间结构对音高句法加工的影响。以期进一步揭示音乐句法加工的本质, 为音乐和语言的比较以及探索人类更一般的交流机制提供实证依据。     

知识图式对贝叶斯推理的影响

选取具有概率知识的大学生(专家)和没有概率知识的大学生(新手)为被试,进行贝叶斯推理中的概率估计,探讨知识图式对贝叶斯推理的影响。结果表明,具有概率知识背景的大学生比没有概率知识背景的大学生概率估计的准确性更高,反应时更长,说明知识图式影响概率信息的搜索和判断。     

Prosodic facilitation in the resolution of syntactic ambiguities in subjects with left and right hemisphere damage

The purpose of this study was to determine if prosody facilitates the comprehension of sentences containing temporary syntactic ambiguities in control, and left (LHD) and right hemisphere damaged (RHD) subjects. To test for effects of prosodic facilitation, sentences were created where prosodic boundaries coincided with (cooperating), were absent (baseline), or conflicted (conflicting) with syntactic boundaries in three response times (RTs) experiments. Despite differences in overall RTs and response accuracy for each group, all three groups responded faster and more accurately to sentences in the cooperating than in the baseline and conflicting conditions across experiments, indicating that prosody facilitates syntactic parsing in brain-damaged subjects just as it does with normal control subjects. Results are discussed in relation to psycholinguistic theories of syntactic parsing and neurolinguistic theories of hemispheric specialization in processing the acoustic properties of prosodic structures.     

Experimental evidence for a minimalist account of English resumptive pronouns.

In this article we provide evidence for a Minimalist account of English-type resumptive pronouns. Our findings provide empirical support for syntactic theories that, like Minimalist accounts, allow for competition among derivations. According to our account, resumptive pronouns are spell-outs of traces. For reasons of economy, the resumptive pronoun surfaces only when the derivation with the trace is precluded by syntactic principles. This account predicts that resumptive pronouns should only improve violations of constraints on representation, and not violations of constraints on movement. We tested this prediction by conducting an acceptability judgment task with 36 native speakers of English. The results bore out our prediction; subjects preferred the resumptive pronoun over the trace in cases where the trace itself was illicit, but not in cases where only the movement operation was illicit.     

Is a kantian Musical Formalism Possible?

In this article, I consider whether a suitably stripped‐down version of Kant's aesthetic theory could nevertheless provide philosophical foundations for musical formalism. I begin by distinguishing between formalism as a view about the nature of music and formalism as an approach to music criticism, arguing that Kant's aesthetics only rules out the former. Then, using an example from the work of musicologist and composer Edward T. Cone, I isolate the characteristics of formalist music criticism. With this characterization in mind, I conclude by showing that even if Kant's aesthetic theory is reduced to its most fundamental claims, the logic of formalist music criticism precludes its practice within even a kantian perspective.     

汉语口语句子产生中句法启动效应的眼动研究

研究利用眼动技术考察了汉语口语句子产生中的句法启动效应及其眼动模式。实验采用双宾语句(主语+谓语+间接宾语+直接宾语)、介宾语句(主语+谓语+直接宾语+间接宾语)和简单句三种启动句类型,听觉呈现启动句后呈现图片要求被试用句子进行描述,目标句类型为双宾语句或介宾语句。结果发现,启动句类型影响了目标句的句法选择及对图片中不同客体的注视时间比率及注视顺序。无论产生的目标句是否与启动句句法结构一致,双宾语句启动下对间接宾语的客体注视时间比率更高,且更多地优先注视间接宾语,介宾语句启动下对直接宾语的客体注视时间比率更高且更多地优先注视直接宾语,而在简单句启动条件下,眼动注视模式则会受到所产生目标句句法结构的影响。行为结果和眼动指标都支持了两阶段理论中结构选择和内容计划两阶段的观点。     

Driving without memory: The strength of schema-consistent false memories

Drivers’ memory for their recent trips has been shown to be surprisingly poor, with relatively low accuracy of both recall and recollection and substantial levels of false memories. Driving research has suggested that arousal, such as from risk, leads to more accurate memories. Memory research suggests that the typicality of objects and events makes them harder to remember accurately, compared to schema-inconsistent or atypical objects, and leads to greater likelihood of false memories. In contrast, it has been suggested that memory for actions is different to memory for objects, and that typical actions are remembered more accurately than atypical actions. The present research examined the role of typicality or schema consistency in the accuracy of memory for driving. Participants drove a 15 km route in their own cars and then answered questions about their drive. The results showed that atypical objects and actions were recalled with greater accuracy than typical objects and actions. The results also showed that false memories were most common for typical objects, but not for typical actions. We interpret these results in terms of both memory theory and implications for understanding skilled behaviour such as driving.     

Memory for musical tempo: Additional evidence that auditory memory is absolute

We report evidence that long-term memory retains absolute (accurate) features of perceptual events. Specifically, we show that memory for music seems to preserve the absolute tempo of the musical performance. In Experiment 1, 46 subjects sang two different popular songs from memory, and their tempos were compared with recorded versions of the songs. Seventy-two percent of the productions on two consecutive trials came within 8% of the actual tempo, demonstrating accuracy near the perceptual threshold (JND) for tempo. In Experiment 2, a control experiment, we found that folk songs lacking a tempo standard generally have a large variability in tempo; this counters arguments that memory for the tempo of remembered songs is driven by articulatory constraints. The relevance of the present findings to theories of perceptual memory and memory for music is discussed.     

中国画审美一致性的专业知识效应:一项fNIRS研究

本研究结合fNIRS技术,考察了美术训练学生和普通学生在中国画审美一致性上的差异。行为上,虽然两组被试在审美评分上没有显著差异,但在评分一致性上,美术训练学生相比普通学生在“好看”评分上更一致。脑活动上,美术训练学生右侧颞顶联合区的16通道和24通道的神经活动一致性显著高于普通学生,且美术训练学生的神经活动一致性与“好看”评分呈负相关。本研究揭示了艺术专业知识对中国画审美的重要性,且神经活动一致性可作为中国画审美判断的一项潜在神经标记。     

句法加工中的预测现象及实验证据

句法加工是读者通过整合输入的言语信息来理解句子的过程。句法加工的存在,使得读者能够提前预测文本的信息,提高阅读效率。由于阅读离不开信息整合,研究者提出两类不同的句法理论:句法预测的模块局域性理论和句法预测的互动分析性观点。这两类理论的争论点在于句法加工是单独模块化的自上而下加工,还是自下而上-自上而下的互动分析加工过程。其区别表现为句法预测的作用——前者认为句法预测对句子加工有抑制作用,后者认为句法预测对句子加工起促进作用。来自眼动、ERP等研究的数据佐证了句法预测的存在。未来研究应围绕其差异进行深入探讨,以揭示句法加工的实质。