Edward C. Carterette

Pitch and Duration as Determinants of Musical Space

In an experiment aimed at assessing dimensional properties of musical space, musicians rated the similarity of pairs of brief melodies on a 9-point scale. From our review of previous work, we hypothesized (1) that pitch variables would be considered more important than time or rhythmic variables by our subjects and (2) that the metrical consonance of pitch and duration patterns would generate a factor related to pattern regularity in listeners9 musical space. Four melodies and their inversions were played in each of four rhythmic patterns (anapestic, dactylic, iambic, and trochaic) for a total of 1024 pattern pairs. Both multidimensional scaling and cluster analyses of similarity showed that at least five dimensions were needed for a good accounting of the perceptual space of these melodies. Surprisingly, the major dimensions found were rhythmic: (1) duple or triple rhythm, (2) accent first or last, and (3) iambic-dactylic versus trochaic-anapestic. Other dimensions were (4) rising or falling pitch and (5) the number of pitch—contour inflections. The tendency to rate patterns on the basis of time or rhythm (Dimensions I, II, and III) was negatively correlated with the tendency to rate patterns on the basis of pitch (Dimensions IV and V). It could not be determined whether this result depends on cognitive processing limitations, attention, or preferences. No factor was found that related to pattern regularity as we defined it.

Perceptual space for musical structures

Loudness or pitch can be scaled in a space of one dimension. Timbre is multidimensional. The timbre of a musical sound or voice depends upon its time‐varying spectral envelope and periodic fluctuations of amplitude or fundamental frequency. The strengths and weaknesses of scales in describing aspects of tone sensation are contrasted in the light of experiment and theory, both old and new. Multidimensional examples are perceptual spaces of voices and musical structures. Unidimensional examples are the standard scales of loudness and pitch. The adequacy of these is questioned by some recent work done with Norman H. Anderson and based on functional measurement theory. Thus, in one series of experiments, subjects judged loudness averages and differences of noise arrays. The resulting interval scale indicates that loudness is the one‐third power of sound pressure. New work on loudness and pitch scales obtained in bisectioning tasks will be presented.

Bisection of loudness

In a loudness bisection task, subjects varied one sound to lie halfway between two given sounds in terms of loudness. The two given sounds were varied from 30 to 90 dB in a 4 by 9 factorial design. Functional measurement methods based on monotone analysis provided good support for the bisection model, and yielded a loudness scale with an exponent of about .3, except for a falloff at lower intensities. Two other tasks, judging average loudness and difference in loudness of the two given sounds, yielded mixed results. In Experiment 2, in particular, the differencing judgments were not additive, even under monotone transformation. These analyses also indicated that previous applications of monotone analysis have typically lacked adequate power to allow any conclusion about the operative model. Overall, the present bisection scale agrees with Garner’s lambda scale, and the present theoretical approach agrees with that of Garner in its emphasis on algebraic models as a foundation for psychological measurement.

Some Factors Affecting Multi‐Channel Listening

Certain factors were investigated that affect the intelligibility of a speech message which is presented to a listener simultaneously with an interfering speech message. In two of the four experiments reported, filters were introduced into one of the two channels that carried the messages. Thresholds of perceptibility were not reliably decreased by moderate amounts of filtering of the received message. However, articulation scores were considerably increased by the use of a high‐pass filter (500 cps) in either of the two channels.The great advantage of presenting one message to one ear and the interfering message to the other ear (dichotic presentation) was measured by changes in the thresholds of perceptibility and by articulation tests. Functional relations between thresholds of perceptibility for the message to be received and the intensity of an interfering signal were determined for both monaural and dichotic listening. In separate tests, noise was also used as the interfering signal. Dichotic recept...

The effect of melodic and temporal contour on recognition memory for pitch change

This study was designed to explore the kinds of temporal patterning that foster pitch-difference discrimination. Musicians and nonmusicians rated the similarity of pairs of 9-note melodies that could differ in the pitch chroma of a single note at any of five serial positions. In a complete factorial design, there were 84 standard melodies (4 pitch patterns × 21 rhythms), each of which was paired with 10 octave-raised comparisons; 5 comparisons were identical to the standard in chroma and 5 had a single changed chroma. A literature review suggested that temporal accent occurs for tones initiating a lengthened temporal interval and for tones initiating a group of three or more intervals; pitch-level accent is a product of pitch skips on the order of 4 semitones or of the change of direction of the pitch contour. In this study there were three classes of temporal patterns.Rhythmically, consonant patterns had temporal accenting that was always metrically in phase with pitch-level accenting and promoted the best performance.Rhythmically out-of-phase consonant patterns had temporal accenting and pitch-level accenting that occurred regularly at the same metrical rate, but the two were never in phase. Rhythmically dissonant patterns had temporal accenting and pitch-level accenting at different metrical rates. Patterns in the latter two classes sound syncopated, and they generally resulted in poorer pitch-discrimination performance. Musicians performed better than non musicians on all patterns; however, an account of performance in terms of “rhythmic noncousonance” generated by the above three categories predicted 63% and 42% of the variance in musicians’ and nonmusicians’ performance, respectively. Performance at all serial positions was generally best for tones initiating long sound-filled intervals and was also better at a particular serial position when pitch-level accenting took the form of a pitch contour inflection instead of a unidirectional pitch skip. There was some evidence that rhythmic consonance early in a pattern improved muicians’ performance at a later serial position.

18 – Comparative Music Perception and Cognition

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the comparative music perception and cognition. The study of non-Western music perception had relatively little attention, although there are indications of increasing interest among scholars of diverse disciplines. In general, musicologists tend to focus on the “document” frame of reference, wherein generalizations about musical practice and development are made from cultural artifacts or on-site interviews. Musical anthropologists, as well as some ethnomusicologists, seem overly concerned with extra musical, contextual features. Psychologists, on the other hand, are interested in the perceptual and cognitive functions of music, often ignoring the subtleties of the musical frame. In the case or animals or birds, the sounds are classified as “musical” by humans for the purpose of investigation. The chapter concludes that it is clear that in order to have an integrative approach to understanding musical behavior, prejudices and biases attached to different domains of research must overcome.

Verbal Attributes of Simultaneous Wind Instrument Timbres: I. von Bismarck's Adjectives

A study on the verbal attributes of timbre was conducted in an effort to interpret the dimensional configuration of the similarity spaces of simultaneously sounding wind instrument timbres. In the first experiment, subjects rated 10 wind instrument dyads on eight factorially pure semantic differentials from von Bismarck9s (1974a) experiments. Results showed that the semantic differentials failed to differentiate among the 10 timbres. The semantic differential methodology was changed to verbal attribute magnitude estimation (VAME), in which a timbre is assigned an amount of a given attribute. This procedure resulted in better differentiation among the 10 timbres, the first factor including attributes such as heavy, hard, and loud, the second factor involving sharp and complex, a contrast with von Bismarck9s results. Results of the VAME analysis separated alto saxophone dyads from all others, but mapped only moderately well onto the perceptual similarity spaces. It was suggested that many of the von Bismarck adjectives lacked ecological validity.

The effects of articulation on the acoustical structure of feline vocalizations

Feline isolation calls were analyzed, and a model was developed to relate the acoustical features of these calls to the physical processes used in their production. Fifty isolation calls were recorded from each of five cats for a total sample of 250 vocalizations. By combinations of Fourier transform, autocorrelation, and linear prediction methods, the fundamental frequency (glottal-pulse period) F0, the energy of F0, the frequency having maximum energy Fmax (not always F0), and the energy at this frequency were computed. Mean F0 ranged from 400-600 Hz for individual cats. For some cats F0 was consistent within calls, but for other cats sudden shifts in F0 occurred within calls. Here, Fmax was almost a harmonic of F0 and generally ranged from 1-2 kHz. For individual cats, the energy ratio E = (energy of Fmax/energy of F0) varied from 1 to 60 and the grand average E over the time course of the call varied from about 12 to 38. The mean rms call intensity was an inverted-U function of time. Measured jaw opening was strongly correlated with acoustical features of call. A Bessel-horn model with time-varying flare gave a good account of acoustical parameters such as Fmax. The presence of formantlike resonances in cat vocalizations and the important role of jaw movements (vocal gestures) in the production of these calls suggest that cats may provide a useful model for some aspects of human vocal behavior.

Feedback and Psychophysical Variables in Signal Detection

144 observers, divided into eight groups of 18 each, were run in a two‐alternative, temporal, forced‐choice auditory‐signal‐detection task. At each of two signal intensities, four levels of information feedback were used. No feedback (NF); correct feedback on every trial (F100), on three‐fourths (F75), or half (F50) of the trials, with incorrect feedback on remaining trials. The results were that (a) NF and F100 led to higher probability of correct responding P(C) than either F75 or F50 for both signal intensities; (b) P(C) for NF was higher under the higher intensity but lower under the lower intensity than for F100; (c) on trials immediately following trials on which observers response and feedback agreed, detection rates were higher and false‐alarm rates were lower than following disagreement trials, whereas these differences were close to zero for F50. It is argued that feedback leads the observer to change his criterion following disagreements. The effect of this variability is to depress the mean d...

Perceptual and Acoustical Features of Natural and Synthetic Orchestral Instrument Tones

Four experiments were conducted to explore the timbres of natural, continuant orchestral instruments with emulation based on sampling, frequency modulation ( FM) synthesis, and a hybrid consisting of sampling and synthesis techniques combined. Identification of instruments using verbal labels was significantly better for the natural and sampling- based signals than for either FM synthesis or the hybrid technique, a result also found for aural categorization. Perceptual scaling of timbral similarities demonstrated great consistency across a series of independent variables, including musical training, monophonic and stereo presentation, and long versus short signal durations. The first dimension of the classical multidimensional scaling (CMDS) solutions mapped onto long- time- average spectral centroid. The second dimension mapped onto a measure of spectral variability. Little evidence was found for the mapping of attack time or signal duration onto either dimension. A third dimension separated most natural instruments from their emulated counterparts. Experiments using verbal attribute ratings confirmed the correlation of spectral centroid, the first dimension of the perceptual space, and ratings of nasality; the second dimension correlated with spectral variability and modestly correlated with ratings of rich, brilliant, and tremulous. Mismatches of spectral distribution and variability resulted in poor emulations of the natural instruments. Results suggest that further study of centroid and time-variant psychophysical properties is warranted.