Interaction among auditory dimensions: Timbre, pitch, and loudness

Melara, Robert D.; Marks, Lawrence Ε.

doi:10.3758/bf03207084

Cited by 278 publications

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“…Some researchers have found that the timbre of a tone affects its perceived pitch (e.g., Krumhansl & Iverson, 1992, Experiment 1; Melara & Marks, 1990a, 1990b, 1990cPlatt & Racine, 1985;Singh & Hirsh, 1992;Wapnick & Freeman, 1980), whereas others have found no effect of timbre on pitch perception (e.g., Krumhansl & Iverson, 1992, Experiments 2 and 3; Semal & Demany 1991, 1993. It seems that those studies presenting tones in the absence of other tones tend to find an interaction between pitch and timbre, whereas studies presenting tones within the context of other tones find no such interaction (but see also , in which pitch and timbre difference thresholds for isolated tones were not affected by variation in the irrelevant dimension).…”

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“…Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to C. M. Warrier, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Francis Searle Building,Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (e-mail: cwarrier@northwestern.edu). & Marks, 1990a& Marks, , 1990b& Marks, , 1990c. Melara and Marks performed a series of experiments in which pitch, timbre, and loudness interactions were investigated, using the Garner (1974) speeded classification method; they observed how redundant and interfering information from the unattended dimensionaffected reactiontimes, and looked at classification reaction times for selective and divided attention to these dimensions with varying orientations of stimulus axes.…”

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Influence of tonal context and timbral variation on perception of pitch

Warrier

Zatorre

2002

Perception & Psychophysics

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Pitch and timbre are two of the building blocks of music. Variations in pitch lead to a melodic line, whereas variations of timbre are usually heard as different instrumentations. Do pitch and timbre interact? Listening to an orchestra, one can hear a continuous melody being played when different instruments switch off playing separate parts of this melody, even if each note of the melody is played by a different instrument, a compositional style called klangfarbenmelodieor hocket. A more striking demonstrationof this phenomenon occurs with sung melodies, in which the changing vocal timbres associated with speech do not alter perception of the melody. This implies that one can follow the fundamental frequency (F0) of a series of tones, even when their spectral shapes differ, which argues for the separability of pitch and timbre. However, since both pitch and spectral timbre are rooted in the frequency dimension of sound, it should not be surprising if they interact under some circumstances. To test this idea, one could look at people's perceptions of pitch and/or timbre when both the F0 and the spectral shape of the tones differ. This paper investigates the interaction between pitch and timbre, focusing on spectral timbre's influence on pitch perception as a function of context.The literature in which interactions between pitch and timbre are examined has yielded contradictory results. Some researchers have found that the timbre of a tone affects its perceived pitch (e.g., Krumhansl & Iverson, 1992, Experiment 1;Melara & Marks, 1990a, 1990b, 1990cPlatt & Racine, 1985;Singh & Hirsh, 1992;Wapnick & Freeman, 1980), whereas others have found no effect of timbre on pitch perception (e.g., Krumhansl & Iverson, 1992, Experiments 2 and 3;Semal & Demany 1991, 1993. It seems that those studies presenting tones in the absence of other tones tend to find an interaction between pitch and timbre, whereas studies presenting tones within the context of other tones find no such interaction (but see also , in which pitch and timbre difference thresholds for isolated tones were not affected by variation in the irrelevant dimension).A same-different paradigm was used by Singh and Hirsh (1992) to determine the perceived pitch of isolated residue tones, tones having no component at F0. Six timbres were synthesized, each containing four consecutive harmonics, the lowest of which could be the second, third, fourth, or up to the seventh harmonic. Each pair of tones could differ in F0, spectral composition, or both. Subjects indicated whether timbre was the same or different, and whether pitch stayed the same, went up, or went down. When the harmonic numbers and F0 moved in the same direction, subjects correctly reported the direction of pitch change. However, when harmonic number and F0 moved in opposite directions, this created a conflict. If the change in F0 was 4% or greater, the direction of F0 change dominated pitch judgments. However, when the change in F0 was less than 4%, the direction of harmonic change dominated pitch judgmen...

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Influence of tonal context and timbral variation on perception of pitch

Warrier

Zatorre

2002

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…Moreover, as shown in Experiments 3 and 6, this asymmetry is maintained in the face of indirect reference to the stimulus, as when an auditory label signals a visual stimulus. Finally, as shown in Experiments 1-3, the interaction between past and present position appears to have a postperceptual origin, as indicated by the recurrence of the pattern that Melara and Marks (1990a, 1990b, 1990d call semantic crosstalk. This set of results suggests the following conclusion: .Processing systems tie attributes to stimuli and, in so doing, tie the present to the past.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One may note in Table 5 that subjects' classifications were much faster in this experiment than in previous ones, but these speeds are not atypical for perceptual judgments, even between interacting dimensions (cf. Melara & Marks, 1990a, 1990b, 1990d.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

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On the nature of interactions between the past and the present.

Melara¹,

Nairne²

1991

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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We conceptualize the past and the present as dimensions of experience and ask whether past processing must affect decisions about the present and whether present processing must affect decisions about the past. The paradigm is speeded classification: Ss classified a stimulus's past spatial position and tried to ignore information about present position (Experiments 1-4), or classified present position, while attempting to ignore past position (Experiments 5-6). We found that in classifying the past, Ss were unable to ignore present position, unless it was processed apart from the retrieval cue. In classifying the present, subjects could ignore past position completely. We conclude that a processing asymmetry exists, reflecting perhaps a logical asymmetry in the information required to make past or present decisions.

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“…Although concepts of integrality and separability have traditionally been reserved for visual dimensions (Kemler Nelson, 1993;Maddox, 1992), there are a number of studies that have reported the status of dimensional interaction within the auditory domain for a variety of sound dimensions, including pitch, harmonicity, timbre, location, loudness, and vocal quality (e.g., Caclin, Giard, Smith, & McAdams, 2007;Caclin et al, 2008;Dyson & Alain, 2008;Dyson & Quinlan, 2004;Grau & Kemler Nelson, 1988;Harris, Pikler, Hoffman, & Ehmer, 1958;Krumhansl & Iverson, 1992;Melara & Marks, 1990;Mondor, Zatorre, & Terrio, 1998;Patching & Quinlan, 2002;Wood, 1975). The present aim was not to provide evidence that the nature of an interaction between any pair of auditory dimensions is one or the other but, rather, to detail how dimensional relations estimated at the macrolevel relate to estimates derived at the microlevel.…”

Section: Experime R R Ntmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decomposing the Garner interference paradigm: Evidence for dissociations between macrolevel and microlevel performance

Dyson

Quinlan

2010

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

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Three Garner interference experiments are described in which baseline, filtering, and correlated performance were assessed at both a macrolevel (condition average) and microlevel (intertrial contingency), using the pairwise combinations of auditory pitch, loudness, and location. Discrepancies between pairs of dimensions were revealed between macro-and microlevel estimates of performance and, also, between filtering costs and correlated benefits, relative to baseline. The examination of the intertrial effects associated with filtering costs suggested that effects of increased stimulus uncertainty were mandatory, whereas effects of irrelevant variation were t Th i ti f th i t t i l ff t i t d ith l t d b fit t d th t th d t ti f not. The examination of the intertrial effects associated with correlated benefits suggested that the detection of stimulus repetition took precedence over that of stimulus change. Violations of standard horse race accounts of processing did not appear to stem from differences in the absolute or relative speeds of processing between dimensions but, rather, from the special role that certain dimensions (e.g., pitch) may play in certain modalities (e.g., audition). The utility of examining repetition effects is demonstrated by revealing a level of understanding regarding stimulus processing typically hidden by aggregated measures of performance.

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Interaction among auditory dimensions: Timbre, pitch, and loudness

Cited by 278 publications

References 36 publications

Influence of tonal context and timbral variation on perception of pitch

Influence of tonal context and timbral variation on perception of pitch

On the nature of interactions between the past and the present.

Decomposing the Garner interference paradigm: Evidence for dissociations between macrolevel and microlevel performance

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