6. Human musicality

2018 ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Pitch Perception ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Musical Skills ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
The Difference

What does it mean to be musical? What kind of musicality are people born with, and how does it develop in such diverse ways? The fact that the ability to perform and appreciate music varies so substantially from person to person raises questions about the nature of musical capacity and its acquisition. “Human musicality” first considers one of its central aspects—pitch perception—and outlines the difference between relative and absolute pitch. It then examines the stages of development across which people acquire musical skills and the effects of musical training. It also discusses individual differences in musical abilities and behaviors, including musical savants, amusia, and musical anhedonia.

scholarly journals Individual Differences in Perception of the Speech-to-Song Illusion are Linked to Musical Aptitude but not Musical Experience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Tierney ◽  
Aniruddh D. Patel ◽  
Kyle Jasmin ◽  
Mara Breen
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
General Population ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Musical Aptitude ◽  
Musical Skills ◽  
Musical Characteristics

In the speech-to-song illusion certain spoken phrases are perceived as sung after repetition. Prior work has established that perception of the illusion is not limited to specialist listeners, such as individuals with musical training, but is perceived widely across the general population. However, little is known about whether there are stable individual differences in perception of the illusion, and if so, what factors underlie this variability. Here we assessed the strength of the song illusion across individuals using phrases that tend to be perceived as song when repeated, as well as phrases that continue to be perceived as speech when repeated, measuring the strength of the illusion as the rating difference between these two stimulus categories after repetition. Illusion strength varied widely, with differences in perception of the two categories ranging from 0% to 80% of the rating scale. Although variability in illusion strength was unrelated to degree of musical training, participants who perceived the illusion more strongly were proficient in several musical skills, including beat perception, tonality perception, and selective attention to pitch. This finding supports theoretical models of the speech-to-song illusion in which experience of the illusion is based on detection of musical characteristics latent in spoken phrases.

The state of dispositional mindfulness research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Alfons Karl ◽  
Ronald Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Trait Mindfulness ◽  
Dispositional Mindfulness ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Bibliometric Review ◽  
The Difference

Objectives We present a bibliometric review of research on trait mindfulness published from 2005 till 2021 to determine the current state of the field and identify research trajectories. Methods A search conducted on Jan 30, 2021 using the search terms “trait mindfulness” OR “dispositional mindfulness” in the Web of Science Core Collection identified 1,229 documents. Results Using keyword-based network analyses, the various clusters suggested two major approaches in the field, one focusing on cognitive attentional processes, and a second approach that encompasses a wider field of well-being and clinical research topics. We also increasing consolidation of research fields over time, with research on wider individual differences such as personality being subsumed into clinically and wellbeing-oriented research topics. More recently, a distinct theme focused on the validity of measurement of mindfulness emerged. In addition to general patterns in the field, we examined the global distribution of trait mindfulness research. Research output was substantially skewed towards North American-based researchers with less international collaborations. Chinese researchers nevertheless also produced research at significant rates. Comparing the difference in research topics between China and the US-based researchers we found substantial differences with US research emphasizing meditation and substance abuse issues, whereas researchers from China focused on methodological questions. Conclusions Overall, our review indicates that research on trait mindfulness might profit from conceptual and cultural realignment, with greater focus on individual differences research in other areas of psychology to complement the strong clinical and cognitive focus we well as also stronger cross-cultural and comparative studies.

scholarly journals PITCH MEMORY AND EXPOSURE EFFECTS: Statistical learning and the effects of implicit "absolute pitch" on the perception and evaluation of music

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Shay Ben-Haim ◽  
Zohar Eitan ◽  
Eran Chajut
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Considerable Proportion ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Frequency Of Occurrence ◽  
Auditory Cognition ◽  
Musical Cognition ◽  
Pitch Frequency

Recent studies indicate that the ability to represent absolute pitch values in long-term memory (LTM), long believed to be the possession of a small minority of trained musicians endowed with "absolute pitch" (AP), is in fact shared to some extent by a considerable proportion of the population. The current study examined whether this newly discovered ability affects aspects of music and auditory cognition, particularly pitch learning and evaluation. Our starting points are two well established premises: (1) frequency of occurrence has an influence on the way we process stimuli; (2) in Western music, some pitches and musical keys are much more frequent than others. Based on these premises, we hypothesize that if absolute pitch values are indeed represented in LTM, pitch frequency of occurrence in music would significantly affect cognitive processes, in particular pitch learning and evaluation. Two experiments were designed to test this hypothesis in participants with no AP, most with little or no musical training. Experiment 1 demonstrated a faster response and a learning advantage for frequent pitches over infrequent pitches in an identification task. In Experiment 2 participants evaluated infrequent pitches as more pleasing than frequent pitches when presented in isolation. These results suggest that absolute pitch representation in memory may play a substantial, hitherto unacknowledged role in auditory (and specifically musical) cognition.

scholarly journals Home assessment of visual working memory in pre-schoolers reveals associations between behaviour, brain activation and environmental measures.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sobanawartiny Wijeakumar ◽  
Eva Rafetseder ◽  
Yee Lee Shing ◽  
Courtney McKay
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
School Children ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Colour Change ◽  
Stressful Events ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Parietal Cortices

Visual working memory (VWM) is reliably predictive of fluid intelligence and academic achievements. The objective of the current study was to investigate the nature of individual differences in pre-schoolers by examining the relationship between behaviour-brain function underlying VWM processing and parent-reported measures. We used a portable 8 x 8 channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy system to record from the frontal and parietal cortices of 4.5-year-old pre-school children (N=74) as they completed a colour change detection VWM task in their homes. Parents were asked to fill in questionnaires on temperament, academic aspirations, home environment, and life stress. Children were median-split into a low-performing (LP) and a high-performing (HP) group based on the number of items they could successfully remember during the task. LPs increasingly activated the bilateral frontal and parietal cortices with increasing load, whereas HPs showed no difference in activation across the loads. Our findings suggested that LPs recruited more neural resources when their VWM capacity was challenged. We employed mediation analyses to examine the association between the difference in activation between the highest and lowest loads, and variables from the questionnaires. The difference in activation in the right parietal cortex partially mediated the association between parent-reported stressful life events and VWM performance. Specifically, a higher number of stressful events was associated with lower VWM performance. Critically, our findings show that the association between VWM capacity, right parietal activation, and indicators of life stress is important to understand the nature of individual differences in VWM in pre-school children.

Change detection in complex auditory scenes is predicted by auditory memory, pitch perception, and years of musical training

2018 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 585-601
Author(s):  
Christina M. Vanden Bosch der Nederlanden ◽  
Che’Renee Zaragoza ◽  
Angie Rubio-Garcia ◽  
Evan Clarkson ◽  
Joel S. Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Change Detection ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Pitch Perception ◽  
Auditory Memory ◽  
Auditory Scenes

Musicians upweight pitch during prosodic categorization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley E Symons ◽  
Adam Tierney
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Task Relevance ◽  
Potential Predictor ◽  
Cue Weighting ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
Linguistic Focus ◽  
Speech Categorization

Speech perception requires the integration of evidence from acoustic cues across multiple dimensions. Individuals differ in their cue weighting strategies, i.e. the weight they assign to different acoustic dimensions during speech categorization. In two experiments, we investigate musical training as one potential predictor of individual differences in prosodic cue weighting strategies. Attentional theories of speech categorization suggest that prior experience with the task-relevance of a particular acoustic dimensions leads that dimension to attract attention. Therefore, Experiment 1 tested whether musicians and non-musicians differed in their ability to selectively attend to pitch and loudness in speech. Compared to non-musicians, musicians showed enhanced dimension-selective attention to pitch but not loudness. In Experiment 2, we tested the hypothesis that musicians would show greater pitch weighting during prosodic categorization due to prior experience with the task-relevance of pitch cues in music. In this experiment, listeners categorized phrases that varied in the extent to which pitch and duration signaled the location of linguistic focus and phrase boundaries. During linguistic focus categorization only, musicians up-weighted pitch compared to non-musicians. These results suggest that musical training is linked with domain-general enhancements of the salience of pitch cues, and that this increase in pitch salience may lead to to an up-weighting of pitch during some prosodic categorization tasks. These findings also support attentional theories of cue weighting, in which more salient acoustic dimensions are given more importance during speech categorization.

The effects of timbre on absolute pitch judgment

2020 ◽  
pp. 030573561989343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaonuo Li
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Test Study ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Very High

This article reports the high prevalence of Absolute Pitch (AP) among students at Shanghai Conservatory of Music and explores the effects of timbre on AP judgment through a large-scale direct-test study. This study used two types of timbres (piano timbre and string timbre) to explore the correlation between the different types of timbre and note-naming accuracy. The participants included 71 undergraduate students majoring in piano and string at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, who had begun musical training at an age ⩽ 9 and focused on Western tonal music. The main results showed that the overall performance levels were very high and that the students scored 73% correct without semitone errors and 80% with semitone errors. All groups exhibited higher performance in judging pitches in piano timbre than string timbre. In addition, after listening to piano timbre, the accuracy in judging pitches in string timbre was significantly increased, and after listening to string timbre, the accuracy in judging pitches in piano timbre decreased but not significantly.

scholarly journals Neural patterns reveal single-trial information on absolute pitch and relative pitch perception

NeuroImage ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 200 ◽  
pp. 132-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Leipold ◽  
Marielle Greber ◽  
Silvano Sele ◽  
Lutz Jäncke
Keyword(s):  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Pitch Perception ◽  
Single Trial ◽  
Relative Pitch

Personality, Politics, and Religion

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Friesen
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Beliefs ◽  
Influence Model ◽  
Big Five Traits ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
First Mover

Individual differences in personality, religiosity, and political dispositions often are explained in conjunction with one another. Though the religious and political may share common themes of meaning-making, group identity, and societal organization, personality also influences these orientations. Specifically, the Big Five traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, emotional stability) and authoritarianism demonstrate consistent relationships with religious/ political beliefs and behaviors. Personality is often thought of as the first mover to develop with an individual before exposure to the other two domains, leading to a conceptual influence model of: personality → religiosity → politics. Using longitudinal studies and genetically informed samples, however, some scholars suggest that these dispositions influence one another and could develop concurrently within individuals. Examining the measured boundaries and relationships between the three domains suggests these dispositions comprise an individual’s personhood, and the varied expression of traits, beliefs, and behaviors are somewhat dependent on culture and context.

scholarly journals Time for work: Analyzing the role of time perspectives in work attitudes and behaviors

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Wojtkowska ◽  
Maciej Stolarski ◽  
Gerald Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Work Engagement ◽  
Time Perspective ◽  
Work Behaviors ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Attitudes And Behaviors ◽  
And Behaviors

AbstractPrevious research has provided strong evidence for a pronounced role of time perspective (TP) in various areas of human functioning, including cognitive processes, mental and physical health, environmental behaviors, and relationship quality. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of individual differences in TP in work-related attitudes and behaviors. In a sample of 200 office workers, we administered a set of questionnaires measuring TPs, job satisfaction, work engagement, Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB). Additionally, we controlled for the Big Five personality traits which may be related to the work-related outcomes of interest. Analyses of the data revealed that Future-Positive TP predicted more desired work-related outcomes, i.e., higher job satisfaction, work engagement, and OCB, and lower CWB. An opposite pattern of associations was observed for Present-Fatalistic, Deviation from Balanced Time Perspective, and (partially) for Future-Negative TPs. The vast majority of these effects were still significant after controlling for personality traits. Using path modelling we also demonstrated that the effects of TPs on work behaviors (OCB and CWB) are mostly mediated by job satisfaction and engagement. The present results suggest that TP theory may prove to be a useful tool in organizational psychology for understanding individual differences in work behaviors.

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