Pitch and Duration in Recognition of Music-Like Structures

Chamberlain, Philip J.

doi:10.2466/pms.1974.38.2.419

Percept Mot Skills

1974

DOI: 10.2466/pms.1974.38.2.419

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Pitch and Duration in Recognition of Music-Like Structures

Philip J. Chamberlain

Abstract: To determine whether patterning of pitch or duration contributes most to the recognition of melodic structures, tone sequences resembling musical patterns or melodies were used in a recognition memory task. Nine categories of pattern complexity were produced by using three different levels of average information per tone in each of the two dimensions. These categories of tone sequences were presented to groups of Ss and their recognition performance measured. Only patterning of pitch was a significant factor i… Show more

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Cited by 5 publications

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“…Berlyne (1971Berlyne ( , 1972) explored the relation between uncertainty and preference in his work on experimental aesthetics. Moreover, Chamberlain (1974) observed detrimental effects of high uncertainty on the recognition of short sequences of tones. These investigations considered uncertainty at one level of stimulus structure.…”

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Effects of uncertainty on melodic

Cohen

Trehub

Thorpe

1989

Perception & Psychophysics

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In three experiments, musically trained and untrained adults listened to three repetitions of a 5-note melodic sequence followed by a final melody with either the same tune as those preceding it or differing in one position by one semitone. In Experiment 1, ability to recognize the final sequence was examined as a function of redundancy at the levels of musical structure in a sequence, contour complexity of transpositions in a trial, and trial context in a session. Within a sequence, tones were related as the major or augmented triad; within a trial, the four sequences began on successively higher notes (simple macrocontour) or on randomly selected notes (complex macrocontour); and within a session, trials were either blocked (all major or all augmented) or mixed (major and augmented randomly selected). Performance was superior for major melodies, for systematic transpositions within a trial (simple macrocontours), for blocked trials, and for musically trained listeners. In Experiment 2, we examined further the effect of macrocontour. Performance on simple macrocontours exceeded that on complex, and excluded the possibility that repetition of the 20-note sequences provided the entire benefit of systematic transposition in Experiment 1. The effect of musical structure (major/augmented) was also replicated. In Experiment 3, listeners provided structure ratings of ascending 20-note sequences from Experiment 2. Ratings on same trials were higher than those on corresponding different trials, in contrast to performance scores for augmented same and different trials in previous experiments. The concept of functional uncertainty was proposed to account for recognition difficulties on augmented same trials. The significant effects of redundancy on all the levels examined confirm the utility of the information-processing framework for the study of melodic sequence perception.In the present investigation, we examine the effect of uncertainty on melodic pattern processing. In particular, we aim to show that uncertainty at various levels of stimulus structure affects melodic processing. Interest in uncertainty originated in applications of information theory to perception and meaning (Gamer, 1962(Gamer, , 1974Haber, 1969;Underwood, 1979). According to this conceptualization, limited capacity or processing resources can be overcome by effective coding at various stages from sensation to perception and representation.The accuracy of encoding is thought to be affected by the physical properties of the stimulus and the experimental context. Because information requiring a simple code demands fewer processing resources than does information requiring a more complex code, complexity of the code predicts the accuracy of representation. According to Simon (1972), the complexity of a pattern can be defined by the number of symbols required to represent it. For example, a pattern with three identical elements (e.g.,

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confidence: 99%

Effects of uncertainty on melodic

Cohen

Trehub

Thorpe

1989

Perception & Psychophysics

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Perceptual Categories for Musiclike Sounds: Implications for Theories of Speech Perception

Cutting

Rosner

Foard

1976

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Sawtooth acoustic stimuli of different rise times are identified as coming from a plucked string instrument (pluck) or a bowed one (bow). Like stop consonants, these sounds are perceived categorically—discrimination is poor for stimuli identified as belonging to a single class but good for those identified as members of different classes. Varying the interval between two successive musiclike stimuli hardly alters discrimination. Sawtooth stimuli lasting 750 ms are clearly perceived categorically; those lasting 250 ms are not. Prolonged exposure to a pluck or bow stimulus can shift the rise-time boundary between categories. Shifts due to such selective adaptation decrease as adapting and test stimuli share fewer characteristics. Adaptation of postulated “feature detectors” therefore may occur in input systems prior to the detectors themselves. Our findings contradict previous claims that categorical perception and selective adaptation are manifestations of psychological processes unique to speech perception.

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Thematic fame and melodic originality in classical music: A multivariate computer-content analysis1

Simonton

1980

J Personality

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In order to understand the foundation of eminence in cultural activities, an attempt was made at learning why some works creators produce are more famous than others. This paper specifically investigates the differential fame of 5,046 themes by 10 eminent composers of classical music. Hypotheses derived from past research in creativity and esthetics were tested using a computerized content analysis. The results show that (a) the fame ofa musical theme is a positive linear function of melodic originality (rather then a curvilinear inverted-U function), and (b) melodic originality is a positive function of biographical stress and of historical time, and an inverted backwards-J function of age.Past research suggests that individual eminence in cultural activities is largely due to creative productivity (Albert, 1975; Simonton, 1977b). That is, the more famous creators are those who produce a large number of notable or influential works. But this very relationship raises yet another question, what are the attributes of a given work which make it earn posterity's high regard? Why are Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Michelangelo's David, and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony better known than comparable works by other creators, or even more appreciated than comparable efforts by the very same creators? Given that any creator's reputation rests on his or her finest works, individual differences in eminence cannot be fully appreciated without first understanding the causes that differentiate major from minor works. Even though there has been some empirical inquiry into the determinants of creative productivity across individuals (Simonton, 1977b) and into the relationship between quality and quantity of productivity within individuals (Simonton, 1977a), little scientific research has been directly aimed at the factors rendering some works more notable than others. To be sure, theoretical and experimental esthetics offers a large body of findings on tbe factors affecting the appreciation of litera-1. A Faculty Crant from the University of California made this project possible. I thank Susan Youel Simonton for helping me define the measure of melodic originality.

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Pitch and Duration in Recognition of Music-Like Structures

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

Effects of uncertainty on melodic

Effects of uncertainty on melodic

Perceptual Categories for Musiclike Sounds: Implications for Theories of Speech Perception

Thematic fame and melodic originality in classical music: A multivariate computer-content analysis1

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