Musical Expertise and the Ability to Imagine Loudness

Abstract

Most perceived parameters of sound (e.g. pitch, duration, timbre) can also be imagined in the absence of sound. These parameters are imagined more veridically by expert musicians than non-experts. Evidence for whether loudness is imagined, however, is conflicting. In music, the question of whether loudness is imagined is particularly relevant due to its role as a principal parameter of performance expression. This study addressed the hypothesis that the veridicality of imagined loudness improves with increasing musical expertise. Experts, novices and non-musicians imagined short passages of well-known classical music under two counterbalanced conditions: 1) while adjusting a slider to indicate imagined loudness of the music and 2) while tapping out the rhythm to indicate imagined timing. Subtests assessed music listening abilities and working memory span to determine whether these factors, also hypothesised to improve with increasing musical expertise, could account for imagery task performance. Similarity between each participant’s imagined and listening loudness profiles and reference recording intensity profiles was assessed using time series analysis and dynamic time warping. The results suggest a widespread ability to imagine the loudness of familiar music. The veridicality of imagined loudness tended to be greatest for the expert musicians, supporting the predicted relationship between musical expertise and musical imagery ability.

Increased involuntary musical mental activity is not associated with more accurate voluntary musical imagery.

“…In terms of the main hypotheses we found that, musical practice was positively related to VMI pitch ability, as was expected. This finding is consistent with the VMI pitch results found by Aleman et al (2000) and is aligned with the findings of increased VMI loudness accuracy in experts reported by Bishop et al, (2013). The present study also extends the work by Aleman et al (2000) to include a real time VMI pitch listening task,…”

“…By comparison, participants with musical practice experience made more appropriate distinctions between flat, sharp and unaltered pitch levels. Again, this result confirms the findings reported by Aleman et al (2000) and Bishop et al, (2013) regarding an association between VMI accuracy and musical expertise, but also provides the insight that non-musicians make more mistakes in a VMI task as they are unable to confirm when a pitch shift has occurred.…”

“…Repetition, such as that experienced with musical imagery in extreme INMI frequency, is one mechanism by which information may be successfully stored in memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968;Baddeley & Hitch, 1974). Voluntary repetition of musical imagery within memory is one reason why musicians may develop more accurate VMI pitch ability, though other explanations include greater attention focus at the point of encoding and more robust storage thanks to advanced knowledge of musical structure and notation (Bailes et al, 2013). To date, the question of whether involuntary repetition of musical material in the form of INMI also has a positive effect on VMI accuracy remains largely unexplored.…”

Tuning the inner radio: The mental control of musical imagery in everyday environments

“…It is conceivable that music students believe that they should be able to perform the manipulations, causing higher self-reported ability. But in past research, musical experts show better ability to complete similar imagery tasks in a lab setting (Bishop et al, 2013a;Herholz et al, 2008;Weir et al, 2015). Using self-reports instead of behavioral measures reflects a trade-off inherent in ecological assessment methods, which trade the ability to explore concepts in people's idiosyncratic, real-world environments for the control of lab-based methods.…”

Recent Advances in Organic Reactions Involving Elemental Sulfur

“…Underground native sulfur can be mined by the Frasch process, which was successfully commercialized from 1902, by injecting superheated water. These sources of elemental sulfur were supposedly of fossil origin, produced by the action of Archaebacteria on sulfate deposits …”