Imagery for musical timbre.

Subjects made same/different judgments concerning the pitches of two successive tones. In Experiment 1, the two tones were played on either the same instrument (guitar, flute, trumpet) or on different instruments. When the two pitches were indeed the same, people were faster to respond "same" when the instrumental timbres also matched than when two different instruments played the tones. In Experiment 2, the first tone was always a sine wave and the second was one of the same three instrumental tones. Following the sine wave, but before presentation of the second tone, people were asked to form an image of what an assigned instrument would have sounded like playing that pitch. A match between this imagined timbre of the first tone and the timbre of the second tone produced faster reaction times to identical pitches than a mismatch. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of pitch and timbre by musically trained and untrained listeners.

Investigated how musicians and nonmusicians differentially perceive the dimensions of pitch and timbre. A categorization task was used in Exp 1 to assess Ss' ability to identify how 2 consecutively presented tones changed along these dimensions. A speeded classification task was used in Exp 2 to measure Ss' ability to ignore or take advantage of information in one dimension while attending to the other. The 2 groups differed in the degree to which variation along the dimensions influenced responses. Timbre variation affected nonmusicians' judgments of pitch more than the reverse. Musicians showed no such asymmetry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of spectral and dynamic cues in imagery for musical timbre.

The musical quality of timbre is based on both spectral and dynamic acoustic cues. Four 2-part experiments examined whether these properties are represented in the mental image of a musical timbre. Exp 1 established that imagery occurs for timbre variations within a single musical instrument, using plucked and bowed tones from a cello. Exps 2 and 3 used synthetic stimuli that varied in either spectral or dynamic properties only, to investigate imagery with strict acoustic control over the stimuli. Exp 4 explored whether the dimension of loudness is stored in an auditory image. Spectral properties appear to play a much larger role than dynamic properties in imagery for musical timbre. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived pitch class of isolated musical triads.

A paired-comparisons task was used to determine which note of a pure-tone triad sounded most similar to the triad. Musically inexperienced Ss showed no systematic preference, experienced Ss consistently preferred the highest note in the triad, and professional musicians split equally between preferring the highest note and the root note. Preference for the root note shifted to preference for the highest note as the triad type became increasingly inharmonic, suggesting that the former depended on inference of a missing fundamental. When Ss were asked to vocally reproduce the pitch they heard when listening to a triad, similar results were obtained, except that a root-note preference was now detectable in Ss with less musical experience. Preference for the root note was also facilitated by use of octave-replicated tones, and this increase was shown to be due to obscuring of pitch-height cues, rather than harmonic complexity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multidimensional scaling of synthetic musical timbre: Perception of spectral and temporal characteristics.

Investigated the perceptual correlates of acoustic parameters involved in musical timbre by examining judgements of timbre dissimilarity. Nine synthetic sounds were created, derived from crossing 3 levels of spectral and temporal parameters (number of harmonics and rise time). Two separate conditions were tested, 1 using single tones, the other using short melodies. 15 musically untrained 20–47 yr olds were presented with pairs of stimuli and judged dissimilarity on an 8-point scale. The spatial configuration resulting from multidimensional analysis of the data was best fit by a 3 dimensional model, with the 1st 2 dimensions accounting for most of the variance. The perceptual space derived from the analysis indicates that these 2 orthogonal dimensions corresponded closely to the spectral and temporal differences inherent to the stimuli. Similar results were obtained with both melodies and single tones. A 2nd experiment replicated the findings despite the introduction of random loudness variation. It is concluded that even musically unselected subjects are sensitive to spectral and temporal information in musical tones, and are able to use them independently in making perceptual judgements of musical timbre. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual grouping affects pitch judgments across time and frequency.

Pitch, the perceptual correlate of fundamental frequency (F0), plays an important role in speech, music, and animal vocalizations. Changes in F0 over time help define musical melodies and speech prosody, while comparisons of simultaneous F0 are important for musical harmony, and for segregating competing sound sources. This study compared listeners' ability to detect differences in F0 between pairs of sequential or simultaneous tones that were filtered into separate, nonoverlapping spectral regions. The timbre differences induced by filtering led to poor F0 discrimination in the sequential, but not the simultaneous, conditions. Temporal overlap of the two tones was not sufficient to produce good performance; instead performance appeared to depend on the two tones being integrated into the same perceptual object. The results confirm the difficulty of comparing the pitches of sequential sounds with different timbres and suggest that, for simultaneous sounds, pitch differences may be detected through a decrease in perceptual fusion rather than an explicit coding and comparison of the underlying F0s. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Independent temporal and pitch structures in determination of musical phrases.

In two experiments we addressed the roles of temporal and pitch structures in judgments of melodic phrases. Musical excerpts were rated on how good or complete a phrase they made. In Experiment 1, trials in the temporal condition retained the original temporal pattern but were equitonal; trials in the pitch condition retained the original pitch pattern but were equitemporal; and trials in the melody condition contained both temporal and pitch patterns. In Experiment 2, one pattern (pitch or temporal) was shifted in phase and recombined with the other pattern to create the pitch and temporal conditions. In the melody condition, both patterns were shifted together. In both experiments, ratings in the temporal and pitch conditions were uncorrelated, and the melody condition ratings were accurately predicted by a linear combination of the pitch and temporal condition ratings. These results were consistent across musicians with varying levels of experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Auditory stream segregation by musical timbre: Effects of static and dynamic acoustic attributes.

Two experiments examined the influence of timbre on auditory stream segregation. In Experiment 1, listeners heard sequences of orchestral tones equated for pitch and loudness, and they rated how strongly the instruments segregated. Multidimensional scaling analyses of these ratings revealed that segregation was based on the static and dynamic acoustic attributes that influenced similarity judgments in a previous experiment (P. Iverson & C. L. Krumhansl, 1993). In Experiment 2, listeners heard interleaved melodies and tried to recognize the melodies played by a target timbre. The results extended the findings of Experiment 1 to tones varying in pitch. Auditory stream segregation appears to be influenced by gross differences in static spectra and by dynamic attributes, including attack duration and spectral flux. These findings support a Gestalt explanation of stream segregation and provide evidence against a peripheral channel model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Functional anatomy of musical processing in listeners with absolute pitch and relative pitch

We used both structural and functional brain imaging techniques to investigate the neural basis of absolute pitch (AP), a specialized skill present in some musicians. By using positron emission tomography, we measured cerebral blood flow during the presentation of musical tones to AP possessors and to control musicians without AP. Listening to musical tones resulted in similar patterns of increased cerebral blood flow in auditory cortical areas in both groups, as expected. The AP group also demonstrated activation of the left posterior dorsolateral frontal cortex, an area thought to be related to learning conditional associations. However, a similar pattern of left dorsolateral frontal activity was also observed in non-AP subjects when they made relative pitch judgments of intervals, such as minor or major. Conversely, activity within the right inferior frontal cortex was observed in control but not in AP subjects during the interval-judgment task, suggesting that AP possessors need not access working memory mechanisms in this task. MRI measures of cortical volume indicated a larger left planum temporale in the AP group, which correlated with performance on an pitch-naming task. Our findings suggest that AP may not be associated with a unique pattern of cerebral activity but rather may depend on the recruitment of a specialized network involved in the retrieval and manipulation of verbal-tonal associations.     

Dissociation of musical tonality and pitch memory from nonmusical cognitive abilities.

Replicated, validated, and extended measures of sensitivity to musical pitch and examined whether performance on tests of tonal structure and pitch memory was related to, or dissociated from, performance on tests of nonmusical cognitive skills (standardized tests of cognitive abstraction, vocabulary, and memory for digits and nonrepresentational figures). Factor analyses of data from 100 neurologically intact Ss (aged 18–40 yrs) revealed a dissociation between music and nonmusic variables, both for the full data set and a set for which the possible contribution of levels of music training was statistically removed. A 40-yr-old female with neurological impairment scored within the range of matched controls on nonmusic tests but much lower than controls on music tests. It is concluded that this study provides further evidence of a functional specificity for musical pitch abilities. Examples of melodies and chord progressions are appended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tone sequences with conflicting fundamental pitch and timbre changes are heard differently by musicians and nonmusicians.

An Auditory Ambiguity Test (AAT) was taken twice by nonmusicians, musical amateurs, and professional musicians. The AAT comprised different tone pairs, presented in both within-pair orders, in which overtone spectra rising in pitch were associated with missing fundamental frequencies (F0) falling in pitch, and vice versa. The F0 interval ranged from 2 to 9 semitones. The participants were instructed to decide whether the perceived pitch went up or down; no information was provided on the ambiguity of the stimuli. The majority of professionals classified the pitch changes according to F0, even at the smallest interval. By contrast, most nonmusicians classified according to the overtone spectra, except in the case of the largest interval. Amateurs ranged in between. A plausible explanation for the systematic group differences is that musical practice systematically shifted the perceptual focus from spectral toward missing-F0 pitch, although alternative explanations such as different genetic dispositions of musicians and nonmusicians cannot be ruled out. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual grouping due to pitch and amplitude in hallucinating schizophrenics

Acquired deficiencies of fibrinogen, antithrombin III and plasminogen are reported in liver disease, and it is known that their plasma levels fluctuate during the day. The aim of this study was to investigate the circadian rhythms of these three factors in chronic liver disease. Five groups of subjects were considered: (A) 15 healthy controls: (B) 15 patients with hepatic alcoholic steatosis; (C) 15 patients with chronic active hepatitis; (D) 15 patients with compensated cirrhosis of the liver, and (E) 15 patients with decompensated cirrhosis with ascites. The levels of fibrinogen, antithrombin III and plasminogen were determined in blood samples drawn in each subject during the span of a day every 3 h starting from midnight. The time-related values were analyzed using the 'population-mean cosinor' method. Groups A and B presented a significant (p < 0.05) circadian rhythm for each variable, group C a significant (p < 0.05) circadian rhythm for fibrinogen and antithrombin III and groups D and E no significant (p > 0.05) circadian rhythms. Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) were demonstrated among the groups in the mean daily levels of the three variables by ANOVA, the concentrations decreasing with disease severity. These data confirm the existence of a significant diurnal periodicity in the circulating levels of fibrinogen, antithrombin III and plasminogen in controls and suggest that liver disease is associated with progressive circadian modifications in the temporal structure of fibrinogen, antithrombin III and plasminogen, related to the stage of the liver disease. The rhythm derangements may be considered markers of evolution in liver disease.     

Dimensional interaction between color and pitch.

In three experiments I investigated the nature of cross–modal dimensional interaction by testing speeded classification of the synesthetically corresponding dimensions of color (white–black) and pitch (high–low). Experiment 1 showed significant Garner interference when these dimensions were varied orthogonally—redundancy gain for positively correlated dimensions and redundancy loss for negatively correlated dimensions. Attributes from synesthetically congruent stimuli were classified faster than attributes from incongruent stimuli (a congruity effect). Experiment 2 tested a perceptual explanation of this interaction (i.e., that color and pitch are configural dimensions) by using Pomerantz's (1986) diagnostic (comparison of selective and divided attention performance). The configurality hypothesis received little support. Experiment 3 examined the effect of optional processes on color and pitch classification. The results suggest that partly strategic and partly mandatory components may constitute overall performance. Three alternative explanations of the color–pitch interaction—perceptual, semantic, and response based—are evaluated in the context of the present results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual interactions in two-word displays: Familiarity and similarity effects.

Previous studies have demonstrated the existence of perceptual interactions in the processing of 2-word displays such as SAND LANE. Four experiments were conducted with 99 undergraduates to study the role of familiarity and similarity of the stimuli on these interactions. Exp I examined whether migration errors, and the effect of surround similarity on these errors depend on the fact that the migrating letters fit together with the surround in which they occur to form familiar higher order units. Exp II replicated the results of Exp I using a slightly different paradigm. Exp III examined the role of lexicality, independent of orthographic regularity, by comparing word stimuli to orthographically regular nonword stimuli, and Exp IV examined the role of physical, as opposed to abstract, similarity of the stimuli. Overall findings indicate that when postcued to report 1 of the 2 words, Ss often made migration errors, in that the report of the specified word included a letter of the other word (e.g., LAND or SANE instead of SAND). Migrations depended on the abstract, structural similarity of the strings, but not on the physical similarity; on whether the strings were words; and on whether the possible migration responses were words. Results reveal that migration errors could not be attributed to a guessing strategy. Findings are interpreted in terms of models in which both strings simultaneously access high-level structural knowledge about what sequences of letters fit together to form familiar wholes. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Auditory memory for timbre.

Psychophysical studies are reported examining how the context of recent auditory stimulation may modulate the processing of new sounds. The question posed is how recent tone stimulation may affect ongoing performance in a discrimination task. In the task, two complex sounds occurred in successive intervals. A single target component of one complex was decreased (Experiments 1 and 2) or increased (Experiments 3, 4, and 5) in intensity on half of trials: The task was simply to identify those trials. Prior to each trial, a pure tone inducer was introduced either at the same frequency as the target component or at the frequency of a different component of the complex. Consistent with a frequency-specific form of disruption, discrimination performance was impaired when the inducing tone matched the frequency of the following decrement or increment. A timbre memory model (TMM) is proposed incorporating channel-specific interference allied to inhibition of attending in the coding of sounds in the context of memory traces of recent sounds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tempo discrimination of musical patterns: effects due to pitch and rhythmic structure

The purpose of this research was to investigate a set of factors that may influence the perceived rate of an auditory event. In a paired-comparison task, subjects were presented with a set of music-like patterns that differed in their relative number of contour changes and in the magnitude of pitch skips (Experiment 1) as well as in the compatibility of rhythmic accent structure with the arrangement of pitch relations (Experiment 2) Results indicated that, relative to their standard referents, comparison melodies were judged to unfold more slowly when they displayed more changes in pitch direction, greater pitch distances, and an incompatible rhythmic accent structure. These findings are suggested to stem from an imputed velocity hypothesis, in which people overgeneralize certain invariant relations that typically occur between melodic and temporal accent structure within Western music.     

The relation between instrumental musical activity and cognitive aging.

Objective: Intensive repetitive musical practice can lead to bilateral cortical reorganization. However, whether musical sensorimotor and cognitive abilities transfer to nonmusical cognitive abilities that are maintained throughout the life span is unclear. In an attempt to identify modifiable lifestyle factors that may potentially enhance successful aging, we evaluated the association between musical instrumental participation and cognitive aging. Method: Seventy older healthy adults (ages 60–83) varying in musical activity completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. The groups (nonmusicians, low and high activity musicians) were matched on age, education, history of physical exercise, while musicians were matched on age of instrumental acquisition and formal years of musical training. Musicians were classified in the low (1–9 years) or high (>10 years) activity group based on years of musical experience throughout their life span. Results: The results of this preliminary study revealed that participants with at least 10 years of musical experience (high activity musicians) had better performance in nonverbal memory (η2 = .106), naming (η2 = .103), and executive processes (η2 = .131) in advanced age relative to nonmusicians. Several regression analyses evaluated how years of musical activity, age of acquisition, type of musical training, and other variables predicted cognitive performance. Conclusions: These correlational results suggest a strong predictive effect of high musical activity throughout the life span on preserved cognitive functioning in advanced age. A discussion of how musical participation may enhance cognitive aging is provided along with other alternative explanations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between musical structure and psychophysiological measures of emotion.

Psychophysiological studies with music have not examined what exactly in the music might be responsible for the observed physiological phenomena. The authors explored the relationships between 11 structural features of 16 musical excerpts and both self-reports of felt pleasantness and arousal and different physiological measures (respiration, skin conductance, heart rate). Overall, the relationships between musical features and experienced emotions corresponded well with those known between musical structure and perceived emotions. This suggests that the internal structure of the music played a primary role in the induction of the emotions in comparison to extramusical factors. Mode, harmonic complexity, and rhythmic articulation best differentiated between negative and positive valence, whereas tempo, accentuation, and rhythmic articulation best discriminated high arousal from low arousal. Tempo, accentuation, and rhythmic articulation were the features that most strongly correlated with physiological measures. Music that induced faster breathing and higher minute ventilation, skin conductance, and heart rate was fast, accentuated, and staccato. This finding corroborates the contention that rhythmic aspects are the major determinants of physiological responses to music. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mapping musical thought to musical performance.

Expressive timing methods are described that map pianists' musical thoughts to sounded performance. In Experiment 1, 6 pianists performed the same musical excerpt on a computer-monitored keyboard. Each performance contained 3 expressive timing patterns: chord asynchronies, rubato patterns, and overlaps (staccato and legato). Each pattern was strongest in experienced pianists' performances and decreased when pianists attempted to play unmusically. In Experiment 2 pianists performed another musical excerpt and notated their musical intentions on an unedited score. The notated interpretations correlated with the presence of the 3 methods: The notated melody preceded other events in chords (chord asynchrony); events notated as phrase boundaries showed greatest tempo changes (rubato); and the notated melody showed most consistent amount of overlap between adjacent events (staccato and legato). These results suggest that the mapping of musical thought to musical action is rule-governed, and the same rules produce different interpretations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)