Perceptual Invariances in the Comparative Psychology of Music

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart H. Hulse ◽  
Annie H. Takeuchi ◽  
Richard F. Braaten
Keyword(s):  
Music Perception ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
Spectral Structure ◽  
Human Infants ◽  
Relative Pitch ◽  
Melody Perception ◽  
Pitch Structure ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Perceptual Invariance

If one stimulus pattern is transposed to another, and if the two are recognizably the same, then they are said to be perceptually invariant. Usually, transpositions that lead to perceptual invariance involve changes on a ratio scale between the stimuli comprising the two patterns. In this paper, we survey the literature with a view to the conditions of pitch structure (melody and harmony), spectral structure (timbre), intensity structure (loudness), and temporal structure (rhythm, meter, and tempo) that produce perceptual invariance. The review compares perceptual invariance for human infants, young children, and adults and nonhuman animals. For the most part, perceptual invariance holds at all levels of development and for all species throughout the acoustic dimensions surveyed. However, for melody perception, there is evidence that humans go through a stage in early childhood in which absolute (as distinguished from relative) pitch perception plays a role. Without doubt, absolute pitch is important in perception of serial acoustic (melodic) structures by animals. For both humans and nonhumans, melody perception appears to be governed by a hierarchy of perceptual strategies that includes both absolute and relative pitch. The survey suggests the value of a comparative perspective in understanding the perceptual principles underlying music perception in humans and the principles by which human infants and nonhuman animals process acoustic information.

THE ORIGINS OF MUSIC: INNATENESS, UNIQUENESS, AND EVOLUTION

2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSH McDERMOTT ◽  
MARC HAUSER
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Music Perception ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Adaptive Significance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Relative Pitch ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evolution Of Music ◽  
Basic Features

THE ORIGINS and adaptive significance of music, long an elusive target, are now active topics of empirical study, with many interesting developments over the past few years. This article reviews research in anthropology, ethnomusicology, developmental and comparative psychology, neuropsychology, and neurophysiology that bears on questions concerning the origins and evolution of music. We focus on the hypothesis that music perception is constrained by innate, possibly human- and musicspecific principles of organization, as these are candidates for evolutionary explanations. We begin by discussing the distinct roles of different fields of inquiry in constraining claims about innateness and adaptation, and then proceed to review the available evidence. Although research on many of these topics is still in its infancy, at present there is converging evidence that a few basic features of music (relative pitch, the importance of the octave, intervals with simple ratios, tonality, and perhaps elementary musical preferences) are determined in part by innate constraints. At present, it is unclear how many of these constraints are uniquely human and specific to music. Many, however, are unlikely to be adaptations for music, but rather are probably side effects of more general-purpose mechanisms. We conclude by reiterating the significance of identifying processes that are innate, unique to humans, and specific to music, and highlight several possible directions for future research.

scholarly journals Surveying the Temporal Structure of Sounds Used in Music Perception

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Schutz ◽  
Jonathan M. Vaisberg
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Music Perception ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Spectral Structure ◽  
Amplitude Envelope ◽  
Trapezoidal Shape ◽  
Definition Of

Recent work from our lab illustrates amplitude envelope’s crucial role in both perceptual (Schutz, 2009) and cognitive (Schutz & Stefanucci, 2010) processing. Consequently, we surveyed the amplitude envelopes of sounds used in Music Perception, categorizing them as either flat (i.e., trapezoidal shape), percussive (aka “damped” or “decaying”), other, or undefined. Curiously, the undefined category represented the largest percentage of sounds observed, with 35% lacking definition of this important property (approximately 27% were percussive, 27% flat, and 11% other). This omission of relevant information was not indicative of general inattention to methodological detail. Studies using tones with undefined amplitude envelopes generally defined other properties such as spectral structure (85%), duration (80%), and even model of headphones/speakers (65%) at high rates. Consequently, this targeted omission is intriguing, and suggests amplitude envelope is an area ripe for future research.

Interactions of Perceived Intensity, Duration, and Pitch in Pure Tone Sequences

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasan Gürkan Tekman
Keyword(s):  
Pure Tone ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Perceptual Object ◽  
Perceived Intensity ◽  
Pitch Structure ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Rhythmic Organization

If one dimension of sound is manipulated in a way that suggests a particular rhythmic organization, does perception of other dimensions change in ways that are consistent with the same rhythmic organization? When subjects were asked to judge or adjust intensities of tones, rhythmic manipulations of pitch structure changed the perception of intensity. When subjects were asked to judge timing, rhythmic manipulations of intensity had a similar effect. Timing manipulations did not have an effect on judgments of pitch. The results indicate that temporal structure as a whole is more accessible than the individual physical manipulations that give rise to that structure. It may be concluded that the temporal structure itself, rather than pitches, intensities, and durations in isolation, is a perceptual object.

scholarly journals Electrophysiological Measures of Time Processing in Infant and Adult Brains: Weber's Law Holds

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Brannon ◽  
Melissa E. Libertus ◽  
Warren H. Meck ◽  
Marty G. Woldorff
Keyword(s):  
Time Perception ◽  
Mismatch Negativity ◽  
Absolute Difference ◽  
Oddball Paradigm ◽  
Weber’S Law ◽  
Scalar Property ◽  
Human Infants ◽  
Weber's Law ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
Nonhuman Animals

Behavioral studies have demonstrated that time perception in adults, children, and nonhuman animals is subject to Weber's Law. More specifically, as with discriminations of other features, it has been found that it is the ratio between two durations rather than their absolute difference that controls the ability of an animal to discriminate them. Here, we show that scalp-recorded event-related electrical brain potentials (ERPs) in both adults and 10-month-old human infants, in response to changes in interstimulus interval (ISI), appear to obey the scalar property found in time perception in adults, children, and nonhuman animals. Using a timing-interval oddball paradigm, we tested adults and infants in conditions where the ratio between the standard and deviant interval in a train of homogeneous auditory stimuli varied such that there was a 1:4 (only for the infants), 1:3, 1:2, and 2:3 ratio between the standard and deviant intervals. We found that the amplitude of the deviant-triggered mismatch negativity ERP component (deviant-ISI ERP minus standard-ISI ERP) varied as a function of the ratio of the standard to deviant interval. Moreover, when absolute values were varied and ratio was held constant, the mismatch negativity did not vary.

Reidentification and redescription

1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-74
Author(s):  
Marc D. Hauser ◽  
W. Tecumseh Fitch
Keyword(s):  
Human Infants ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
The World

Millikan's account of substance concepts fails to do away with features. Her approach simply moves the suite of relevant features into an encapsulated module. The crux of the problem for scientists studying human infants and nonhuman animals is to determine how individuals reidentify objects and events in the world.

Canine Factors: Bridging the Gap between Human Factors and Comparative Psychology

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 876-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Helton
Keyword(s):  
Human Factors ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Expertise Development ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Occupational Roles ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Working Dogs

Working dogs have proven to be highly accurate and flexible extensions of our human senses. These trained dogs are increasingly employed in a multitude of occupational roles. The study of these highly trained working dogs bridges the gap between Human Factors and Comparative Psychology and offers many points of potentially fruitful exchange. The present paper presents two examples of issues where Human Factors and Comparative Psychologists share a common interest: expertise development and sustained attention. Dogs are, perhaps, unique among nonhuman animals in their adaptation to human culture and are amazingly flexible, often serving as human surrogates. Many issues discussed and investigated in the Human Factors literature are also relevant to the study of working canines and the study of working canines may enhance the Human Factors literature.

Toward a Comparative Psychology of Music Perception

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart H. Hulse ◽  
Suzanne C. Page
Keyword(s):  
Music Perception ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
European Starling ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
New Information ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Psychology Of Music ◽  
Nonhuman Species

Musicians and ethnomusicologists have long been interested in the idea of musical universals, the proposition that features of musical structure are common to the music of all human cultures. Recently, the development of new techniques and new theory makes it possible to ask whether the perceptual principles underlying music span not just human cultures but also other nonhuman species. A series of experiments addressing this issue from a comparative perspective show that a songbird, the European starling, can perceive pitch relations, a form of musical universal. However, the species transposes pitch relations across large shifts in tone height with difficulty. Instead, songbirds show a preference for learning pitch patterns on the basis of the absolute pitch of component tones. These results suggest further comparative studies of music perception may be especially worthwhile, not just for gathering new information about animals, but also for highlighting the principles that make human music perception unique.

Rats and infants as propositional reasoners: A plausible possibility?

2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leyre Castro ◽  
Edward A. Wasserman
Keyword(s):  
Human Infants ◽  
Associative Processes ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
The World

AbstractMitchell et al. contemplate the possibility of rats being capable of propositional reasoning. We suggest that this is an unlikely and unsubstantiated possibility. Nonhuman animals and human infants do learn about the contingencies in the world; however, such learning seems not to be based on propositional reasoning, but on more elementary associative processes.

scholarly journals Musical Training Enhances Automatic Encoding of Melodic Contour and Interval Structure

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1010-1021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takako Fujioka ◽  
Laurel J. Trainor ◽  
Bernhard Ross ◽  
Ryusuke Kakigi ◽  
Christo Pantev
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Pitch Contour ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Relative Pitch ◽  
Pitch Structure ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Interval Condition ◽  
Automatic Encoding ◽  
Education Process

In music, melodic information is thought to be encoded in two forms, a contour code (up/down pattern of pitch changes) and an interval code (pitch distances between successive notes). A recent study recording the mismatch negativity (MMN) evoked by pitch contour and interval deviations in simple melodies demonstrated that people with no formal music education process both contour and interval information in the auditory cortex automatically. However, it is still unclear whether musical experience enhances both strategies of melodic encoding. We designed stimuli to examine contour and interval information separately. In the contour condition there were eight different standard melodies (presented on 80% of trials), each consisting of five notes all ascending in pitch, and the corresponding deviant melodies (20%) were altered to descending on their final note. The interval condition used one five-note standard melody transposed to eight keys from trial to trial, and on deviant trials the last note was raised by one whole tone without changing the pitch contour. There was also a control condition, in which a standard tone (990.7 Hz) and a deviant tone (1111.0 Hz) were presented. The magnetic counterpart of the MMN (MMNm) from musicians and nonmusicians was obtained as the difference between the dipole moment in response to the standard and deviant trials recorded by magnetoencephalography. Significantly larger MMNm was present in musicians in both contour and interval conditions than in nonmusicians, whereas MMNm in the control condition was similar for both groups. The interval MMNm was larger than the contour MMNm in musicians. No hemispheric difference was found in either group. The results suggest that musical training enhances the ability to automatically register abstract changes in the relative pitch structure of melodies.

scholarly journals The Coherent Radio Emission from the RS CVn Binary HR 1099

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. B. Slee ◽  
W. Wilson ◽  
G. Ramsay
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Electron Cyclotron ◽  
Spectral Structure ◽  
Electron Cyclotron Maser ◽  
Cyclotron Maser ◽  
Frequency Structure ◽  
The Magnetic Field ◽  
Fine Temporal Structure ◽  
Maser Sources

AbstractThe Australia Telescope was used in March–April 2005 to observe the 1.384 and 2.368-GHz emissions from the RS CVn binary HR 1099 in two sessions, each of 9-h duration and 11 days apart. Two intervals of highly polarised emission, each lasting 2–3 h, were recorded. During this coherent emission we employed a recently installed facility to sample the data at 78-ms intervals to measure the fine temporal structure and, in addition, all the data were used to search for fine spectral structure. We present the following observational results: (1) ∼100% left-hand circularly polarised emission was seen at both 1.384 and 2.368 GHz during separate epochs; (2) the intervals of highly polarised emission lasted for 2–3 h on each occasion; (3) three 22-min integrations made at 78-ms time resolution showed that the modulation index of the StokesVparameter increased monotonically as the integration time was decreased and was still increasing at our resolution limit; (4) the extremely fine temporal structure strongly indicates that the highly polarised emission is due to an electron-cyclotron maser operating in the corona of one of the binary components; (5) the first episode of what we believe is ECME (electron-cyclotron maser emission) at 1.384 GHz contained a regular frequency structure of bursts with FWHM ∼48 MHz, which drifted across the spectrum at ∼0.7 MHz min−1. Our second episode of ECME at 2.368 GHz contained wider-band frequency structure, which did not permit us to estimate an accurate bandwidth or direction of drift; (6) the two ECME events reported in this paper agree with six others reported in the literature in occurring in the binary orbital phase range 0.5–0.7; (7) in one event of 8-h duration, two independent maser sources were operating simultaneously at 1.384 and 2.368 GHz.We discuss two kinds of maser sources that may be responsible for driving the observed events that we believe are powered by ECME. One is based on the widely reported ‘loss-cone anisotropy', the second on an auroral analogue, which is driven by an unstable ‘horseshoe' distribution of fast-electron velocities with respect to the magnetic field direction. Generally, we favour the latter, because of its higher growth rate and the possibility of the escape of radiation which has been emitted at the fundamental electron cyclotron frequency. If the auroral analogue is operating, the magnetic field in the source cavity is ∼500 G at 1.384 GHz and ∼850 G at 2.368 GHz; the source brightness temperatures are of the orderTB∼ 1015K.We suggest that the ECME source may be an aurora-like phenomenon due to the transfer of plasma from the K2 subgiant to the G5 dwarf in a strong stellar wind, an idea that is based on VLBA maps showing the establishment of an 8.4 GHz source near the G5 dwarf at times of enhanced radio activity in HR 1099.

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