The Linked Dual Representation model of vocal perception and production

Abstract

The voice is one of the most important media for communication, yet there is a wide range of abilities in both the perception and production of the voice. In this article, we review this range of abilities, focusing on pitch accuracy as a particularly informative case, and look at the factors underlying these abilities. Several classes of models have been posited describing the relationship between vocal perception and production, and we review the evidence for and against each class of model. We look at how the voice is different from other musical instruments and review evidence about both the association and the dissociation between vocal perception and production abilities. Finally, we introduce the Linked Dual Representation (LDR) model, a new approach which can account for the broad patterns in prior findings, including trends in the data which might seem to be countervailing. We discuss how this model interacts with higher-order cognition and examine its predictions about several aspects of vocal perception and production.

Symbolic and Motor Contributions to Vocal Imitation in Absolute Pitch

“…Finally, a dual-route model ( Figure 1c) posits that symbolic representations and vocal-motor representations comprise two different pathways, and that neither one is used to create the other. These models are not meant to outline specific brain regions, but rather informational architectures, about the possible flow of information and how it is encoded (see Hutchins & Moreno, 2013, for further information on this topic).…”

“…However, such a model leaves unexplained the weak but persistent correlation found between perception and production across several studies (Amir et al, 2003;Estis et al, 2009;Estis et al, 2011;Hutchins & Peretz, 2012a;Moore et al, 2007;Watts et al, 2005), as well as the production impairments seen in many cases of congenital amusia (Dalla Bella et al, 2009;Hutchins et al, 2010). Hutchins and Moreno (2013) reviewed the evidence for and against each of these types of models, and concluded that, while each could account for some of the evidence on perception-production relationships, none could provide a framework to account for the broad tendencies in the data -the dissociability of pitch perception and production combined with the weak correlation between the two abilities. Based on this, we proposed a new model, the Linked Dual Representation model (Figure 1d), which could account for both of these tendencies in the data.…”

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THE LINKED DUAL REPRESENTATION MODEL (Hutchins & Moreno, 2013) was designed to provide an account for the broad pattern of relationships between vocal perception and production, including both correlations and dissociations between the two. This model makes a unique prediction that musicians with absolute pitch (AP) should be biased towards compensating for objectively mistuned notes in a single note imitation task.

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Theoretical Perspectives on Singing Accuracy

“…In the present volume, Hutchins considers how this type of representation can play a role in singing, along with the use of low-level perception from the sensorimotor loop (cf. Hutchins & Moreno, 2013). Figure 1 also represents the role of long-term memory in singing (though memory in its various forms may contribute to singing in ways not shown in Figure 1).…”

A Mechanism for Sensorimotor Translation in Singing

“…Keller (2012), for instance, explicitly linked ''musical imagery'' (by which he means multi-modal imagery) with the functioning of internal models for motor planning in music. Furthermore, in proposing a link between perception and action with respect to imagery, we propose that effective sensorimotor translation occurs at an abstract level of representation, more so than other models that suggest associations based on overt motor and perceptual representations (e.g., Berkowska & Dalla Bella, 2009, Hutchins & Moreno, 2013. Our more abstract level coheres with a major theoretical framework for sensorimotor integration, the Theory of Event Coding (Hommel, 2009;Hommel, Müsseler, Aschersleben, & Prinz, 2001;Prinz, Aschersleben, & Koch, 2009).…”