Interaction features for prediction of perceptual segmentation: Effects of musicianship and experimental task

Abstract

As music unfolds in time, structure is recognized and understood by listeners, regardless of their level of musical expertise. A number of studies have found spectral and tonal changes to quite successfully model boundaries between structural sections. However, the effects of musical expertise and experimental task on computational modelling of structure are not yet well understood. These issues need to be addressed to better understand how listeners perceive the structure of music and to improve automatic segmentation algorithms. In this study, computational prediction of segmentation by listeners was investigated for six musical stimuli via a real-time task and an annotation (non real-time) task. The proposed approach involved computation of novelty curve interaction features and a prediction model of perceptual segmentation boundary density. We found that, compared to non-musicians', musicians' segmentation yielded lower prediction rates, and involved more features for prediction, particularly more interaction features; also nonmusicians required a larger time shift for optimal

Western listeners detect boundary hierarchy in Indian music: a segmentation study

“…In empirical studies, patterns exhibited by listeners in performing tasks of phrase segmentation in music have been linked to musical tension 7 , tonality vs atonality 8 , and speech prosody 9 . Additionally, they have been found to be modulated by musical expertise 1 , 10 .…”

“…and the boundaries between such groups. It is not clear, however, how far this aspect of music perception depends on familiarity with the musical style, cross-cultural musical features or cues, or universal cognitive capacities; nor to what degree boundary perception is based on "deep" musical structure (implying non-local, long-range musical relations) and/or on "surface" cues.Segmentation, and the perception of hierarchical grouping structure in music, are the subject of many theoretical and empirical studies, mostly of the tonal styles familiar to Western readers [1][2][3][4][5] . Notably among theoretical studies, Lerdahl and Jackendoff 's Generative Theory of Tonal Music (GTTM) 6 models Western listeners' musical intuitions by proposing explicit rules whereby listeners are presumed to infer certain cognitive structures, specifically including hierarchical grouping structure, from the musical surface of a Western tonal piece.…”

“…In empirical studies, patterns exhibited by listeners in performing tasks of phrase segmentation in music have been linked to musical tension 7 , tonality vs atonality 8 , and speech prosody 9 . Additionally, they have been found to be modulated by musical expertise 1,10 .It cannot, however, be assumed that the same rules and principles govern grouping structure in music outside the Western canon, without empirical verification. Nor, on the other hand, can it be assumed that the perception of grouping boundaries depends on familiarity with a given musical style, whether this familiarity is acquired through enculturation (that is, immersion in the culture in question) or in other ways, such as listening to recordings.…”

“…Musical stimuli include both improvised performances 18,19 , and score-based, synthesised realisations of composed items [20][21][22][23] . Although segmentation studies based on Western music frequently compare the performance of musically trained and untrained listeners 1,10,23,[26][27][28] , among cross-cultural studies only Mungan et al 23 compare (Turkish) musicians and non-musicians, finding higher convergence of the musicians with the expert listeners. Another variable is the number of times the listeners hear and segment the piece; Mungan et al report that in three segmentation trials, listeners were already relatively accurate in the first trial, with little subsequent change 23 .…”

What Determines the Perception of Segmentation in Contemporary Music?

“…Experimental work has recently begun to explore the sense of segmentation in contemporary music. Hartmann et al (2017) asked 18 musicians and 18 non-musicians to listen to six 2-minute stimuli of unfamiliar music and to note segment boundaries (which they define for the participants as "instants of significant musical change, " p. 6) by pressing a computer keyboard space bar. In a second experiment, the same 18 musicians were invited to listen and mark instants of significant change once again and then to revisit the places they had marked and move these as they wished after the second occasion of hearing.…”