Listeners perceive complex pitch-temporal structure in melodies (original) (raw)
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The integration of pitch and time in music perception
2009
Nine experiments were conducted to explore pitch-time integration in music. In Experiments 1-6, listeners heard a musical context followed by probe events that varied in pitch class and temporal position. When evaluating the goodness-of-fit of the probe (Experiment 1), listeners' ratings showed more influence of pitch class than of temporal position. The tonal and metric hierarchies contributed additively to ratings. Listeners again rated goodness-of-fit in Experiment 2, but with instructions to ignore pitch. Temporal position dominated ratings, but an effect of pitch consistent with the tonal hierarchy remained. Again, these two factors contributed additively. A speeded classification task in Experiments 3 and 4 revealed asymmetric interference. When making a temporal judgment (Experiment 3), listeners exhibited a response bias consistent with the tonal hierarchy, but the metric hierarchy did not affect their pitch judgments (Experiment 4). Experiments 5 and 6 ruled out alternative explanations based on the presence of pitch classes and temporal positions in the context, unequal numbers of pitch classes and temporal positions in the probe events, and differential difficulty of pitch versus temporal classification. Experiments 7-9 examined the factors that modulate the effect of temporal variation on pitch judgments. In Experiment 7, a standard tone was iii followed by a tonal context and then a comparison tone. Participants judged whether the comparison tone was in the key of the context or whether it was higher or lower than the standard tone. For both tasks, the comparison tone occurred early, on time, or late with respect to temporal expectancies established by the context. Temporal variation did not affect accuracy in either task. Experiment 8 used the pitch height comparison task, and had either a tonal or an atonal context. Temporal variation affected accuracy only for atonal contexts. Experiment 9 replicated these results and controlled for potential confounds. The findings imply that the tonal contexts found in typical Western music bias attention toward pitch, increasing the salience of this dimension at the expense of time. Pitch salience likely arises from long-term exposure to the statistical properties of Western music and is not linked to the relative discriminability of pitch and time. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful for the instruction, guidance and support provided throughout my graduate studies by my supervisors, Professor Mark Schmuckler and Professor William Thompson. I appreciate the detailed help of Professor Sandra Trehub and Professor Bruce Schneider with my thesis and their generous devotion of time as committee members. Additionally, I credit Professor Lola Cuddy and Professor Eyal Reingold for their service as members of my examination committee. I thank my family for their support and encouragement.
The Integration of Stimulus Dimensions in the Perception of Music
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2011
A central aim of cognitive psychology is to explain how we integrate stimulus dimensions into a unified percept, but how the dimensions of pitch and time combine in the perception of music remains a largely unresolved issue. The goal of this study was to test the effect of varying the degree of conformity to dimensional structure in pitch and time (specifically, tonality and metre) on goodness ratings and classifications of melodies. The pitches and durations of melodies were either presented in their original order, as a reordered sequence, or replaced with random elements. Musically trained and untrained participants (24 each) rated melodic goodness, attending selectively to the dimensions of pitch, time, or both. Also, 24 trained participants classified whether or not the melodies were tonal, metric, or both. Pitch and temporal manipulations always influenced responses, but participants successfully emphasized either dimension in accordance with instructions. Effects of pitch and...
Harmonic Factors in the Perception of Tonal Melodies
Music Perception, 2002
By common assumption, the first step in processing a tonal melody consists in setting up the appropriate metrical and harmonic frames required for the mental representation of the sequence of tones. Focusing on the generation of a harmonic frame, this study aims (a) to discover the factors that facilitate or interfere with the development of a harmonic interpretation, and (b) to test the hypothesis that goodness ratings of tone sequences largely depend on whether the listener succeeds in creating a suitable harmonic interpretation. In two experiments, listeners rated the melodic goodness of selected sequences of 10 and 13 tones and indicated which individual tones seemed not to fit. Results indicate that goodness ratings (a) are higher the more common the induced harmonic progression, (b) are strongly affected by the occurrence and position of nonchord tones: sequences without nonchord tones were rated highest, sequences with anchoring nonchord tones intermediately, and nonanchoring...
Melody recognition entails the encoding of pitch intervals between successive notes. While it has been shown that a whole melodic sequence is better encoded than the sum of its constituent intervals, the underlying reasons have remained opaque. Here, we compared listeners' accuracy in encoding the relative pitch distance between two notes (for example, C, E) of an interval to listeners accuracy under the following three modifications: (1) doubling the duration of each note (C -E -), (2) repetition of each note (C, C, E, E), and (3) adding a preceding note (G, C, E). Repeating (2) or adding an extra note (3) improved encoding of relative pitch distance when the melodic sequences were transposed to other keys, but lengthening the duration (1) did not improve encoding relative to the standard two-note interval sequences. Crucially, encoding accuracy was higher with the four-note sequences than with long two-note sequences despite the fact that sensory (pitch) information was held constant. We interpret the results to show that re-forming the Gestalts of two-note intervals into two-note "melodies" results in more accurate encoding of relational pitch information due to a richer structural context in which to embed the interval.
Musical pitch and time: Melody and rhythm
The authors examined how the structural attributes of tonality and meter influence musical pitch-time relations. Listeners heard a musical context followed by probe events that varied in pitch class and temporal position. Tonal and metric hierarchies contributed additively to the goodness-of-fit of probes, with pitch class exerting a stronger influence than temporal position (Experiment 1), even when listeners attempted to ignore pitch (Experiment 2). Speeded classification tasks confirmed this asymmetry. Temporal classification was biased by tonal stability (Experiment 3), but pitch classification was unaffected by temporal position (Experiment 4). Experiments 5 and 6 ruled out explanations based on the presence of pitch classes and temporal positions in the context, unequal stimulus quantity, and discriminability. The authors discuss how typical Western music biases attention toward pitch and distinguish between dimensional discriminability and salience.
The influence of melodic context on pitch recognition judgment
1982
Subjects made delayed pitch comparisons between tones that were each preceded by tones of lower pitch. The pitches of these preceding tones were so chosen that in some conditions the melodic intervals formed by the standard (S) and comparison (C) combinations were identical,and in others they differed. A strong effect of melodic relational context was demonstrated. When the S and C combinations formed identical melodic intervals, there was an increased tendency for the S and C tones to be judged as identical. And when the S and C combinations formed different melodic intervals, there was an increased tendency for the S and C tones to be judged as different. These effects occurred both when the S and C tones were identical in pitch and also when these differed, and they occurred despite instructions to attend only to the S and C tones.
Pitch and time in music: A study of tonality and meter
The authors examined how the structural attributes of tonality and meter influence musical pitch-time relations. Listeners heard a musical context followed by probe events that varied in pitch class and temporal position. Tonal and metric hierarchies contributed additively to the goodness-of-fit of probes, with pitch class exerting a stronger influence than temporal position (Experiment 1), even when listeners attempted to ignore pitch (Experiment 2). Speeded classification tasks confirmed this asymmetry. Temporal classification was biased by tonal stability (Experiment 3), but pitch classification was unaffected by temporal position (Experiment 4). Experiments 5 and 6 ruled out explanations based on the presence of pitch classes and temporal positions in the context, unequal stimulus quantity, and discriminability. The authors discuss how typical Western music biases attention toward pitch and distinguish between dimensional discriminability and salience.
An Attentional Effect of Musical Metrical Structure
PLOS ONE, 2015
Theories of metrical structure postulate the existence of several degrees of beat strength. While previous work has clearly established that humans are sensitive to the distinction between strong beats and weak ones, there is little evidence for a more fine grained distinction between intermediate levels. Here, we present experimental data showing that attention can be allocated to an intermediate level of beat strength. Comparing the effects of short exposures to 6/8 and 3/4 metrical structures on a tone detection task, we observe that subjects respond differently to beats of intermediate strength than to weak beats.