5Music Perceptions

Question 1

What role does pitch play in the perception of a melody??

Answer 1

Height (Hz frequency); chroma (class: c, d, e, etc); octave equivalence (2:1 ratio)

Question 2

How are intervals perceived in a melody?

Answer 2

Can be sequential/simultaneous; they relate to tonal structure (minor 3rd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, etc.); abstraction of pitch relations (minus pitch class)

Question 3

What are some other salient points that make up a melody?

Answer 3

Changes in melodic contour; harmony (segments melody, implies structure through cadences; higher level than interval & contour); Key (tonal vs. atonal; pitch hierarchy)

Question 4

What are some examples of recognisable violations in music ?

Answer 4

Out of key notes; melodic contour changes; unexpected harmonies

Question 5

Gestalt principles of perception have been applied to melodic perception. What are these principles?

Answer 5

Proximity - elements (i.e pitch, time & space) perceived as a group; similarity - grouping when more than 1 element is similar; closure: closing the gap when incomplete (finality, resolution to tonic); good continuation: smooth continuity preferred over abrupt changes of direction

Question 6

Explain the “scale illusion” described by Diana Deutch

Answer 6

Two alternating ascending/descending scales simultaneously presented to each ear; both pitches combine to give illusion of one ascending & descending line

Question 7

When we perceive pitch sequences, what expectations do we have in regards to contour?

Answer 7

Pitch proximity - expect next note to be nearby, easier to group (innate principle); Pitch reversal - expect a change after large leap & next note closer to one before; Gap fill - after a leap, notes return to their origin (closure)

Question 8

What’s a problem with the gestalt principle “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”?

Answer 8

Musical transposition (if we transpose a tune we’ll still recognise it; memory plays an important role; relative pitch perception more useful than absolute pitch)

Question 9

What is a mental schemata?

Answer 9

A mental framework for organising & interpreting information; extension of memory (encoding, storing & retrieving information)

Question 10

When forming a mental schema what do we do?

Answer 10

Extract significant features, ignore insignificant detail

Question 11

How are mental schemas acquired?

Answer 11

Exposure/experience/enculturation (implicit & explicit memory); some are innate (e.g. loud abrupt sound = alert signal)

Question 12

What’s the difference between implicit & explicit memory?

Answer 12

Implicit doesn’t rely on conscious awareness; develops through exposure (e.g. increased liking of melodies); Explicit is available to consciousness (e.g. conscious recognition of melodies previously exposed to)

Question 13

Melodic contour is similar to prosody of speech, with upward & downward patterns in pitch. What do they not depend on?

Answer 13

Exact same interval size between notes; not tied to absolute pitches (e.g. transposition)

Question 14

What have infants between birth & 1 year old been found to be sensitive to & our memories for novel melodies based on?

Answer 14

Melodic contour rather than pitch details (e.g. absolute pitches & precise interval size)

Question 15

How are familiar melodies most recognised?

Answer 15

By pitch relations (relative pitch)

Question 16

Where is brain lateralisation prioritised in people with absolute pitch?

Answer 16

Left hemisphere (pitch usually processed in right)

Question 17

What did Levitin find about our memory capacity for the pitch of songs?

Answer 17

Most people have a good memory for the pitch of songs always played in the same key

Question 18

In “same-different” experimental methods, where an original & comparison melody is played & participants have to detect if there’s a difference, what has been found?

Answer 18

Listeners make errors about absolute pitch & interval size soon after presentation of novel melodies; contour information is retained longer

Question 19

When there are fewer (vs. more) melodic contour changes, how is this perceived?;
What notes do listeners tend to attend more to?

Answer 19

As simpler;

Notes at contour direction changes rather than notes within an ongoing contour

Question 20

There are a limited number of notes in the Western scale (7), what does this relate to?

Answer 20

Limitations of working memory capacity (7 categories maximum (+/- 2 chunks)

Question 21

In atonal music, such as serialism, what is used instead of a scale?

Answer 21

Tone row; there’s no tonal centre (more challenging as no use of implicit or explicit memory)

Question 22

What did Carol Krumhansl argue in relation to tonal schematas?

Answer 22

That perceptual vs. physical (psychoacoustics) closeness are not the same

Question 23

Describe Carol Krumhansl’s Probe Tone Technique?;

What evidence did she find regarding the difference between perceptual & physical closeness?

Answer 23

Musical context presented (priming); then a single tone/chord played; listener makes judgement as to whether it fits;
Multidimensional scaling - pitch hierarchy is important; we avoid dissonances (e.g. C - D# is psychoacoustically close but not perceptually)

Question 24

There is a difference between the hierarchical grouping principles for music & our perceptual grouping of sounds. According to Bregman, how does grouping happen?

Answer 24

Partly automatically (fast, without conscious attention); we can also consciously segregate by streaming a single perceptual group (e.g. violins in orchestra) or attend to a conversation in crowded room

Question 25

Describe some ways in which music & physiological movements are linked in regards to pulse;
Around what beat do we tend to cling to?

Answer 25

Tapping/dancing to music; walking, heart rate, newborn sucking (60-120bpm) is same as most music’s tempi; perception of movement related to judged similarities between rhythmic patterns; ritardandi (gradual slowing in music) related to walking/running deceleration;
600ms

Question 26

What could differences in beat identification be due to?

Answer 26

Individual differences in neural processing mechanisms; differences in musical background, experience or interpretation of a piece

Question 27

How much variation in tempo is generally detectable?

Answer 27

4%

Question 28

What are some biological & cognitive constraints in regards to tempo compared to deliberate expression?

Answer 28

Tendency to slow down at end of a musical phrase (like a sentence - phrase is structurally important); individual differences in preferred walking rate

Question 29

How do we tend to categorise integer ratios of musical tempos?

Answer 29

As being perceptually similar (e.g. double/half time)

Question 30

What is rhythm & how is it defined?

Answer 30

A set of time spans that elapse between not onsets; it’s defined by onsets (e.g. long & short notes & time between them)

Question 31

What are inter-onset-intervals (IOIs) less than 100 ms commonly heard as?;
What are IOIs more than 1500ms commonly heard as?

Answer 31

A continuous sound;

Disconnected events

Question 32

We perceive rhythmic patterns for up to how long a duration?;
What is perceived with IOIs between 100-1500ms?

Answer 32

5sec (approx. limit of auditory sensory/echoic memory);

Temporal patterns; cognitive limitations within this range & duration of rhythmic patterns

Question 33

What is a serial ratio?

In most simple pop songs, what serial ratio continues up the entire rhythmic hierarchy?

Answer 33

The ratio formed by two adjacent time spans (e.g. rhythmic ratios);
2:1

Question 34

Small integer ratios are the most common & easier to process. What has been found in relation to rhythm and movement processes in the brain?

Answer 34

We have a quantisation process; retaining simple integer rhythms has shown brain activity in motor areas (motor cortex & cerebellum)

Question 35

What kind of rhythms are more difficult to perceive and remember?;
Which brain region is employed with these?;
Which hemisphere are they processed in?

Answer 35

Larger integer rhythmic ratios such as polyrhythms;
Pre-frontal cortex (working memory & decision making -
increased memory load; dissipates when familiar after initial learning);
Mostly right hemisphere - switch to more ‘analytic’ processing

Question 36

Explain the Information Processing theory ‘clock counter’ model in relation to how we hear rhythms;

Answer 36

Tone onsets trigger counting processes; during inter-onset intervals, a series of ‘clock ticks’ (e.g. action potentials) are set off; another subconscious process counts them; behaviour is error-ridden and probabalistic

Question 37

Explain the Physics and Motor Control perspective (entrainment process);
What do sharp peaks relate to?;
What may ‘spread’ peaks relate to?

Answer 37

Adhering and maintaining synchronicity with another pattern (from dynamic systems theory in mathematics); syncs internal to external rhythm; we time our attention by adapting an internal rhythm (a neural oscillation of attentional energy);
Highly regular events (e.g. simple rhythmic ratios, 1:1, 2:1);
Categorical perception (e.g. more complex rhythmic ratios)

Question 38

What does the Physics and Motor Control perspective predict & explain?;
What’s a problem with this perspective?

Answer 38

Predicts how listeners adapt to performance timing fluctuations; explains why integer multiples are treated as functionally similar (e.g. tapping in double vs. single time);
No room for human error – the model is too good

Question 39

Define Metre ;
Define Grouping
Though Meter and grouping are both hierarchically structured, they are not necessarily what?

Answer 39

Regular groupings of strong & weak accents; outlines a recurring period (isochronous beats with equal-onset intervals) that frames the structures of the music;
What musical elements we perceive to be grouped together in the temporal domain (e.g. 2-3 notes - phrase - section - movement); general cognitive mechanism (used in speech processing & other auditory stimuli);
Coinciding

Question 40

Povel and Essens (1985) investigated whether rhythm suggests metre. Describe their model;
What did they find with a more complex rhythm?

Answer 40

Predicts the kind of overarching time span that
might best be suggested by a temporal pattern of inter-onset intervals (e.g. groupings of 3 or 4); focused on the pattern of accents suggested by a temporal pattern;
It’s more ambiguous; doesn’t suggest a single beat

Question 41

Describe some advantages of metrical patterns as opposed to non-metrical patterns

Answer 41

Recognised and reproduced more accurately; metrical frameworks support efficient auditory temporal pattern
processing and representation; demand less attentional resources because of referent framework (may prime listeners to hear metrically ambiguous rhythmic patterns in that meter)

Question 42

When is discrimination of metrical and non-metrical patterns better?

Answer 42

If metrical pattern is presented first (perceptual asymmetry – also with consonant & dissonant intervals)

Question 43

Explain Syncopation

Answer 43

When the metre & rhythm conflict; metrical accents exist when there is no note there; anticipates the beat & builds excitement; pick-up note anticipates the downbeat; can begin a musical phrase before the downbeat (e.g. Happy Birthday); draws attention to the beat