5Music Perceptions Flashcards
What role does pitch play in the perception of a melody??
Height (Hz frequency); chroma (class: c, d, e, etc); octave equivalence (2:1 ratio)
How are intervals perceived in a melody?
Can be sequential/simultaneous; they relate to tonal structure (minor 3rd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, etc.); abstraction of pitch relations (minus pitch class)
What are some other salient points that make up a melody?
Changes in melodic contour; harmony (segments melody, implies structure through cadences; higher level than interval & contour); Key (tonal vs. atonal; pitch hierarchy)
What are some examples of recognisable violations in music ?
Out of key notes; melodic contour changes; unexpected harmonies
Gestalt principles of perception have been applied to melodic perception. What are these principles?
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
Explain the “scale illusion” described by Diana Deutch
Two alternating ascending/descending scales simultaneously presented to each ear; both pitches combine to give illusion of one ascending & descending line
When we perceive pitch sequences, what expectations do we have in regards to contour?
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)
What’s a problem with the gestalt principle “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”?
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)
What is a mental schemata?
A mental framework for organising & interpreting information; extension of memory (encoding, storing & retrieving information)
When forming a mental schema what do we do?
Extract significant features, ignore insignificant detail
How are mental schemas acquired?
Exposure/experience/enculturation (implicit & explicit memory); some are innate (e.g. loud abrupt sound = alert signal)
What’s the difference between implicit & explicit memory?
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)
Melodic contour is similar to prosody of speech, with upward & downward patterns in pitch. What do they not depend on?
Exact same interval size between notes; not tied to absolute pitches (e.g. transposition)
What have infants between birth & 1 year old been found to be sensitive to & our memories for novel melodies based on?
Melodic contour rather than pitch details (e.g. absolute pitches & precise interval size)
How are familiar melodies most recognised?
By pitch relations (relative pitch)
Where is brain lateralisation prioritised in people with absolute pitch?
Left hemisphere (pitch usually processed in right)
What did Levitin find about our memory capacity for the pitch of songs?
Most people have a good memory for the pitch of songs always played in the same key
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?
Listeners make errors about absolute pitch & interval size soon after presentation of novel melodies; contour information is retained longer
When there are fewer (vs. more) melodic contour changes, how is this perceived?;
What notes do listeners tend to attend more to?
As simpler;
Notes at contour direction changes rather than notes within an ongoing contour
There are a limited number of notes in the Western scale (7), what does this relate to?
Limitations of working memory capacity (7 categories maximum (+/- 2 chunks)
In atonal music, such as serialism, what is used instead of a scale?
Tone row; there’s no tonal centre (more challenging as no use of implicit or explicit memory)
What did Carol Krumhansl argue in relation to tonal schematas?
That perceptual vs. physical (psychoacoustics) closeness are not the same
Describe Carol Krumhansl’s Probe Tone Technique?;
What evidence did she find regarding the difference between perceptual & physical closeness?
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)
There is a difference between the hierarchical grouping principles for music & our perceptual grouping of sounds. According to Bregman, how does grouping happen?
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
Describe some ways in which music & physiological movements are linked in regards to pulse;
Around what beat do we tend to cling to?
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
What could differences in beat identification be due to?
Individual differences in neural processing mechanisms; differences in musical background, experience or interpretation of a piece
How much variation in tempo is generally detectable?
4%
What are some biological & cognitive constraints in regards to tempo compared to deliberate expression?
Tendency to slow down at end of a musical phrase (like a sentence - phrase is structurally important); individual differences in preferred walking rate
How do we tend to categorise integer ratios of musical tempos?
As being perceptually similar (e.g. double/half time)
What is rhythm & how is it defined?
A set of time spans that elapse between not onsets; it’s defined by onsets (e.g. long & short notes & time between them)
What are inter-onset-intervals (IOIs) less than 100 ms commonly heard as?;
What are IOIs more than 1500ms commonly heard as?
A continuous sound;
Disconnected events
We perceive rhythmic patterns for up to how long a duration?;
What is perceived with IOIs between 100-1500ms?
5sec (approx. limit of auditory sensory/echoic memory);
Temporal patterns; cognitive limitations within this range & duration of rhythmic patterns
What is a serial ratio?
In most simple pop songs, what serial ratio continues up the entire rhythmic hierarchy?
The ratio formed by two adjacent time spans (e.g. rhythmic ratios);
2:1
Small integer ratios are the most common & easier to process. What has been found in relation to rhythm and movement processes in the brain?
We have a quantisation process; retaining simple integer rhythms has shown brain activity in motor areas (motor cortex & cerebellum)
What kind of rhythms are more difficult to perceive and remember?;
Which brain region is employed with these?;
Which hemisphere are they processed in?
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
Explain the Information Processing theory ‘clock counter’ model in relation to how we hear rhythms;
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
Explain the Physics and Motor Control perspective (entrainment process);
What do sharp peaks relate to?;
What may ‘spread’ peaks relate to?
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)
What does the Physics and Motor Control perspective predict & explain?;
What’s a problem with this perspective?
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
Define Metre ;
Define Grouping
Though Meter and grouping are both hierarchically structured, they are not necessarily what?
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
Povel and Essens (1985) investigated whether rhythm suggests metre. Describe their model;
What did they find with a more complex rhythm?
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
Describe some advantages of metrical patterns as opposed to non-metrical patterns
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)
When is discrimination of metrical and non-metrical patterns better?
If metrical pattern is presented first (perceptual asymmetry – also with consonant & dissonant intervals)
Explain Syncopation
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
