Tonality, Tonal Scheme, and Contour in Delayed Recognition of Tone Sequences

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to test Bartlett and Dowling's conclusion (1980) that the key of a tone sequence strongly influences recognition for short retention intervals, that the influence decreases with increasing retention time, and that the importance of the melodic interval information increases during the retention interval. Five different retention times were used (1,5,8,15, and 30 sec), together with standard tone sequences with a clear tonal scheme and two different contours (two or four directional contour changes). Subjects with moderate musical experience were able to discriminate tonal imitations and transpositions of the standards at all retention times; the number of contour changes did not influence the responses. It was concluded that interval information can be extracted from sequences with strong cues for a particular key within a very short period of time and that one of the major dimensions of tone sequences is not tonality or nontonality, but rather the degree of tonal clarity. This characteristic even may be superior to the number of contour changes.

The influence of height and key on the perceptual similarity of transposed melodies

“…One might assume logically that key distance effects would depend on how strongly a melody actually induces a key in the listener. Several characteristics in melodic sequences have been shown to playa role in key induction: (1) the presence of the tones of a diatonic scale (Bartlett & Dowling, 1980;Dowling, 1978Dowling, , 1991Krum- hansl, 1990), (2) the presence of rare intervals, such as the tritone (Brown & Butler, 1981;Butler, 1983Butler, , 1989, (3) the order ofthe tones (Bartlett & Dowling, 1980;Bharucha, 1984b;Brown, Butler, & Jones, 1994;Deutsch, 1984), and (4) the underlying harmony (Croonen, 1991;Croonen & Kop, 1989;Cuddy et al, 1981). A second factor is related to the possibility that a transposition may be perceived as a shift on the scale of the original melody, which will be referred to as a tonal transposition.…”

Effects of length, tonal structure, and contour in the recognition of tone series

“…Using a continuous running memory task (Shepard & Teghtsoonian, 1961), Dowling (1991) found that subjects made use of the melodic-interval information of tonally strong tone series with long, but not short, RIs and concluded that his earlier findings and those of Dewitt and Crowder (1986) were confirmed: Tonal strength has no influence when coupled with short retention times. Though it seems that the results of Croonen and Kop (1989) and those of Dowling (1991) lead to conflicting conclusions, it must be stressed that a critical evaluation of both studies is complicated by important differences in experimental strategy. First, as also pointed out by Dowling, because Croonen and Kop used repeated standard series, it is likely that these authors did not study the same phenomenon as did Dowling, who used novel standard series only.…”

“…Dowling (1991) did a recognition experiment in which he varied the tonal strength of a series. In contrast to Croonen and Kop (1989) and Cuddy,Cohen,and Mewhort 623 Copyright 1994 Psychonomic Society, Inc.…”

“…Some authors have shown that a complex contour (i.e., a contour with many reversals) complicates the recognition of series (e.g., Dowling & Harwood, 1986). Croonen and Kop (1989) concluded that contour complexity does not influence recognition, provided that the series has a strong tonal structure. Contour complexity was introduced in the present experiment as a separate variable to investigate whether the results of Croonen and Kop (1989) concerning contour complexity could be confirmed and to further investigate the role of contour complexity in tone series with a weak tonal structure.…”

“…Dowling and Harwood (1986) concluded that for recognition of novel tone series, contour is predominant in short-term memory with RIs up to 5 sec, and that the melodic-interval information is predominant with RIs of 30 sec or longer. Croonen and Kop (1989) investigated recognition of tone series with short and long RIs, using series with a strong tonal structure (defined as stimuli consisting of a succession of triads in root position on Scale Steps I and VII successively, the series being concluded with a repetition of the tonic). Subjects made use of the melodic-interval information for both short and long RIs.…”