The Integration of Stimulus Dimensions in the Perception of Music

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

2014

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The identity of a given melody resides in its sequence of pitches and durations, both of which exhibit surface details as well as structural properties. For the purposes of this research, pitch contour (pattern of ups and downs) served as pitch surface information, and tonality (musical key) as pitch structure; in the temporal dimension, surface information was the ordinal duration ratios of adjacent notes (rhythm), and metre (beat, or pulse) comprised the structure.Manipulating factorially the preservation or alteration of all of these forms of information in 17 novel melodies (typifying Western music) enabled measuring their effect on perceived melodic similarity. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 34, varied musical training) rated the perceived similarity of melody pairs transposed to new starting pitches. Rhythm was the largest contributor to perceived similarity, then contour, metre, and tonality. Experiment 2 used the same melodies but varied the tempo within a pair, and added a prefix of three chords, which oriented the listener to the starting pitch and tempo before the melody began. Now contour was the strongest influence on similarity ratings, followed by tonality, and then rhythm; metre was not significant. Overall, surface features influenced perceived similarity more than structural, but both had observable effects. The primary theoretical advances in melodic similarity research are that (1) the relative emphasis on pitch and temporal factors is flexible, (2) pitch and time functioned independently when manipulated factorially, regardless of which dimension is more influential, and (3) interactions between surface and structural information were unreliable and never occurred between dimensions.Running head: MELODIC SIMILARITY

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contributions of pitch contour, tonality, rhythm, and meter to melodic similarity.

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

2014

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“…Similar results have occurred in judgements of melodic similarity (Monahan & Carterette, 1985); participants tended to base similarity ratings on one dimension (pitch or time) at the expense of the other. Some authors have suggested that this ability to emphasise selectively one dimension over another is suggestive of independent processing (Palmer & Krumhansl, 1987a, 1987bPrince, 2011). In any case these data suggest that pitch has a special role in the perception and production of auditory sequences, relative to time.…”

Section: Dimensional Diversity and Pitch Saliencementioning

confidence: 81%

“…The data from Experiment 2 support the notion that framing the debate in this way may constitute an oversimplification (cf. Ellis & Jones, 2009;Prince, 2011;. No interactions emerged between pitch and temporal diversity for any dependent measure, in apparent support of independence.…”

Section: Pitch-time Combinationmentioning

confidence: 91%

The role of pitch and temporal diversity in the perception and production of musical sequences

Pfordresher

2012

Acta Psychologica

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In two experiments we explored how the dimensions of pitch and time contribute to the perception and production of musical sequences. We tested how dimensional diversity (the number of unique categories in each dimension) affects how pitch and time combine. In Experiment 1, 18 musically trained participants rated the complexity of sequences varying only in their diversity in pitch or time; a separate group of 18 pianists reproduced these sequences after listening to them without practice. Overall, sequences with more diversity were perceived as more complex, but pitch diversity influenced ratings more strongly than temporal diversity. Further, although participants perceived sequences with high levels of pitch diversity as more complex, errors were more common in the sequences with higher diversity in time. Sequences in Experiment 2 exhibited diversity in both pitch and time; diversity levels were a subset of those tested in Experiment 1. Again diversity affected complexity ratings and errors, but there were no statistical interactions between dimensions. Nonetheless, pitch diversity was the primary factor in determining perceived complexity, and again temporal errors occurred more often than pitch errors. Additionally, diversity in one dimension influenced error rates in the other dimension in that both error types were more frequent relative to Experiment 1. These results suggest that although pitch and time do not interact directly, they are nevertheless not processed in an informationally encapsulated manner. The findings also align with a dimensional salience hypothesis, in which pitch is prioritised in the processing of typical Western musical sequences.

Surface and structural effects of pitch and time on global melodic expectancies

Loo

2016

Psychological Research

We investigated how the surface and structural information of pitch and time in melodies contribute to the perceived expectancy of melodic segments. The contour (pitch surface), tonality (pitch structure), rhythm (time surface) and metre (time structure) were preserved or altered in factorial fashion, either for the full length of a melody (Full condition) or only its last phrase (Last condition). Participants (N = 24) with a range of musical training received instructions to rate how expected the second portion of a melody was, having heard its first part. Additionally, instructions varied across blocks to attend selectively to pitch, time, or both. Expectancy ratings for the Last condition were lower than for the Full condition, indicating that ratings truly reflected expectancy (rather than overall goodness, which would predict the opposite). Interestingly, tonality and rhythm contributed to global expectancy ratings, but not contour or metre. Furthermore, listeners were unable to ignore entirely either dimension, but successfully attenuated their influence in accordance with instructions. These findings offer a unique insight into music perception by testing expectancies of melody segments (beyond single-note continuations), factorially varying both the surface and structure of pitch and time, and using a selective attention manipulation.