scholarly journals Tonal hierarchy representations in auditory imagery

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique T Vuvan ◽  
Mark A. Schmuckler
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Perception ◽  
Auditory Imagery ◽  
Probe Tone ◽  
Single Tone ◽  
Auditory Image ◽  
Tonal Hierarchy ◽  
Perceptual Evidence ◽  
A Minor

Two experiments investigated psychological representations of musical tonality in auditory imagery. In Experiment 1, musically trained participants heard a single tone as a perceptual cue and built an auditory image of a specified major tonality based on that cue; participants’ images were then assessed using judgments of probe tones. In Experiment 2 participants imaged a minor tonality rather than a major one. Analysis of the probe tone ratings indicated that participants successfully imaged both major and minor tonal hierarchies, demonstrating that auditory imagery functions comparably to auditory perception. In addition, the strength of the major tonal image was dependent upon the pitch and tonal relations of the perceptual cue and the to-be-imaged tonality. Finally, representations of minor tonal hierarchies were less robust than those of major ones, converging with perceptual evidence that minor tonalities are less psychologically stable than major tonalities.

Effects of Auditory Imagery on the Detection of a Pure Tone in White Noise: Experimental Evidence of the Auditory Perky Effect

1992 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 443-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hitoshi Okada ◽  
Kazuo Matsuoka
Keyword(s):  
White Noise ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Auditory Perception ◽  
Pure Tone ◽  
Auditory Imagery ◽  
Auditory Modality ◽  
Auditory Image ◽  
Signal Tone

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the auditory image of a pure tone facilitates or interferes with the auditory perception of the pure tone. The masked threshold of a pure tone in white noise with and without the image of a pure tone was compared. It was shown that, in contrast to Farah and Smith's (1983) finding of facilitation, imagery interfered with the detection of the pure tone only when the frequency of the imagined tone and the detected tone was the same. This interference was interpreted as showing the assimilation of the signal tone into imagery, i.e., the effect described by Perky in 1910, occurred in the auditory modality. An explanation of the differences between findings of interference and facilitation is offered.

Real-Time Probing of Modulations in South Indian Classical (Carnātic) Music by Indian and Western Musicians

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachna Raman ◽  
W. Jay Dowling
Keyword(s):  
Classical Music ◽  
Probe Tone ◽  
Carnatic Music ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Reverse Pattern ◽  
Tonal Hierarchy ◽  
Indian Classical Music ◽  
Response Profiles ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Schematic Knowledge

We used Toiviainen and Krumhansl’s (2003) concurrent probe-tone technique to track Indian and Western musicians’ tonal-hierarchy profiles through modulations in Carnātic (South Indian classical) music. Changes of mode (rāgam) are particularly interesting in Carnātic music because of the large number of modes (more than 300) in its tonal system. We first had musicians generate profiles to establish a baseline for each of four rāgams in isolation. Then we obtained dynamic profiles of two modulating excerpts, each of which incorporated two of the four baseline rāgams. The two excerpts used the two techniques of modulation in Carnātic music: grahabēdham (analogous to a Western shift from C major to A minor), and rāgamālikā (analogous to a shift from C major to C minor). We assessed listeners’ tracking of the modulations by plotting the correlations of their response profiles with the baseline profiles. In general, the correlation to the original rāgam declined and the correlation to the new rāgam increased with the modulation, and then followed the reverse pattern when the original rāgam returned. Westerners’ responses matched those of the Indians on rāgams with structures similar to Western scales, but differed when rāgams were less familiar, and surprisingly, they registered the shifts more strongly than Indian musicians. These findings converged with previous research in identifying three types of cues: 1) culture-specific cues—schematic and veridical knowledge—employed by Indians, 2) tone-distribution cues—duration and frequency of note occurrence—employed by both Indians and Westerners, and 3) transference of schematic knowledge of Western music by Western participants.

scholarly journals Impaired Explicit Processing of Musical Syntax and Tonality in a Group of Mandarin-Speaking Congenital Amusics

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cunmei Jiang ◽  
Fang Liu ◽  
William Forde Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Pitch Discrimination ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Probe Tone ◽  
Congenital Amusia ◽  
Music Structure ◽  
Musical Syntax ◽  
Tonal Hierarchy ◽  
Explicit Processing ◽  
Pitch Distance

We examined explicit processing of musical syntax and tonality in a group of Han Chinese Mandarin speakers with congenital amusia, and the extent to which pitch discrimination impairments were associated with syntax and tonality processing. In Experiment 1, we assessed whether congenital amusia is associated with impaired explicit processing of musical syntax. Congruity ratings were examined for syntactically regular or irregular endings in harmonic and melodic contexts. Unlike controls, amusic participants failed to explicitly distinguish regular from irregular endings in both contexts. Surprisingly, however, a concurrent manipulation of pitch distance did not affect the processing of musical syntax for amusics, and their impaired music-syntactic processing was uncorrelated with their pitch discrimination thresholds. In Experiment 2, we assessed tonality perception using a probe-tone paradigm. Recovery of the tonal hierarchy was less evident for the amusic group than for the control group, and this reduced sensitivity to tonality in amusia was also unrelated to poor pitch discrimination. These findings support the view that music structure is processed by cognitive and neural resources that operate independently of pitch discrimination, and that these resources are impaired in explicit judgments for individuals with congenital amusia.

Multiple Components of the Perception of Musical Sequences: A Cognitive Neuroscience Analysis and Some Implications for Auditory Imagery

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berenice Carroll-Phelan ◽  
Peter J. Hampson
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Minimal Model ◽  
Auditory Perception ◽  
Music Perception ◽  
Present Theory ◽  
Auditory Imagery ◽  
Auditory Information ◽  
Plausible Model ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Selective Intake

A neurologically plausible model of the auditory perception of musical sequences is proposed, and some implications are derived for auditory imagery. In line with a cognitive neuroscience approach, a componential analysis of the major functions required of auditory perception and imagery for musical sequences is first carried out, and a minimal model of auditory imagery and perception is outlined. The minimal model makes a clear distinction between the processing subsystems required for analyzing pitch and rhythm. It also incorporates an auditory buffer for the brief retention of relatively unprocessed auditory input, an attention subsystem that permits selective intake of relevant auditory information, a memory subsystem for melodic strings that combines the outputs of pitch and rhythmic analyses into a long-term, flexible representation of the musical sequence, and an associative memory system that links the results of perceptual analyses of music with extraperceptual (semantic and episodic) information about the musical string. The present theory builds on a recent model of music perception proposed by Peretz (1993) and also accounts for data from studies of patients with disorders of rhythmic processing, thus indicating the close relationship between auditory perception and imagery for rhythmic sequences, timing, and motor processes. Recent data are used to refine and extend the minimal model and provide an organizing framework for current laboratory work.

“Enacted” Auditory Images are Ambiguous; “Pure” Auditory Images are Not

1989 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 619-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Reisberg ◽  
J. David Smith ◽  
David A. Baxter ◽  
Marcia Sonenshine
Keyword(s):  
Visual Image ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Auditory Imagery ◽  
Auditory Image ◽  
Internal Stimulus

Previous research indicates that visual images are inherently unambiguous. The present study extends this argument to auditory imagery. In Experiment 1, subjects were able to reinterpret an imaged ambiguous auditory figure, but covert subvocalization apparently aided this reinterpretation. When subvocalization was blocked, reinterpretations were eliminated. Experiments 2 and 3 generalize this finding to different procedures and stimuli. Experiment 4 explores further the role of subvocalization, by showing that the likelihood of reinterpreting an imaged stimulus is directly proportional to the degree of enactment allowed. We argue that subvocalization or enactment provides an internal stimulus that is subject to reinterpretation. Without enactment, the “pure” auditory image is as unambiguous as a visual image. Thus, in both visual and auditory modalities, images come into being as representations and so are inherently meaningful.

Perception of a tonal hierarchy derived from Korean music

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 580-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Lantz ◽  
Jung-Kyong Kim ◽  
Lola L. Cuddy
Keyword(s):  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Total Duration ◽  
Probe Tone ◽  
Korean Music ◽  
Pitch Structure ◽  
Tonal Hierarchy ◽  
Pentatonic Scale ◽  
Relative Salience

In two experiments, we assessed recovery of a tonal hierarchy in tone sequences. In Experiment 1, sequence tones were five tones of a Korean pentatonic scale plus seven nonscale tones located between scale tones. Sequences included all 12 tones, randomly ordered. Duration of scale tones in each sequence corresponded to the total duration of each tone in a piece of Korean music, as quantified by U. Nam (1998). Nonscale tones were shorter than scale tones. Listeners were either familiar or unfamiliar with the style of Korean music. Sequences were played 12 times, each time followed by 1 of 12 probe tones that had occurred in the sequence. Participants rated goodness-of-fit of the probe tone to the sequence. Ratings by both groups reflected the Korean tonal hierarchy including the relative salience of scale tones. Experiment 2 followed the same method and tones, but duration was assigned to tones quasi-randomly so that duration did not emphasize intervallic relationships in the Korean scale. Ratings differentiated long and short tones, but showed no other clear organization among long tones. Differences in results between experiments suggest that duration helps listeners organize pitch structure only when duration emphasizes intervallic relationships such as the near-perfect fifth.

Time Remembered

KronoScope ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Sills
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Physical Performance ◽  
Great Accuracy ◽  
Wind Instruments ◽  
Auditory Imagery ◽  
Firing Patterns ◽  
Auditory Image ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Temporal Aspects ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThe human brain is capable of experiencing highly complex auditory imagery. Musicians find it valuable to mentally rehearse the auditory image of a piece of music, in the absence of the orchestra or instrument, to help perfect their actual physical performance of it. For this, the auditory image must first be founded on a perfect memory of all the work's musical aspects, and then 'lived- through &#160;in a very finely-judged realisation of its movement in time, so that all its precision or expressive flexibility of tempo and qualities of meaning are fully released.<br /><br />Two neural processes shed light on the trained musician's ability to reproduce the duration of a mental rehearsal with great accuracy: the generation of firing patterns searching for pattern and symmetry, and the coherence behaviour of music processing units in the higher wave-bands. In the light of these two processes, I comment on the experience of mentally rehearsing 'Prélude á L'Aprés-midi d'un Faune', and 'Symphonies of Wind Instruments', and on the organising relationships which heighten the temporal aspects to produce a strong auditory form.

A "Cumulative" Method of Quantifying Tonal Consonance in Musical Key Contexts

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan B. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Single Tone ◽  
Tonal Hierarchy ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Sensory Consonance

Huron (1994) recently calculated the tonal (sensory) consonance for interval categories for all scales that can be drawn from the 12 equally tempered pitch classes. Among scales with seven tones, the combinations that allow the highest tonal consonance were found in the diatonic major, natural minor, and several other scales. In this paper, an extension of Huron's approach that begins with a single tone and successively adds tones that bring the most tonal consonance to the existing set is tested. Based on (1) the order in which tones are added and (2) the mean tonal consonance of the intervals after each addition, values are assigned to each tone that are significantly correlated (p&lt; .001) with ratings of stability that tones display in major and minor key contexts reported by Krumhansl and Kessler (1982). These findings suggest that tonal consonance is not only facilitated in major and minor scales, as Huron found, but that tonal consonance may also account for the tonal hierarchy for tones in both major and minor key contexts.

scholarly journals Probe Tone Paradigm Reveals Less Differentiated Tonal Hierarchy in Rock Music

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique T Vuvan ◽  
Bryn Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Rock Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Music Cognition ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Probe Tone ◽  
Pitch Organization ◽  
Tonal Structure ◽  
Pitch Structure ◽  
Tonal Hierarchy ◽  
The Common

Krumhansl &amp; Kessler’s (1982) pioneering experiments on tonal hierarchies in Western music have long been considered the gold standard for researchers interested in the mental representation of musical pitch structure. The current experiment used the probe tone technique to investigate the tonal hierarchy in classical and rock music. As predicted, the observed profiles for these two styles were structurally similar, reflecting a shared underlying Western tonal structure. Most interestingly, however, the rock profile was significantly less differentiated than the classical profile, reflecting theoretical work that describes pitch organization in rock music as more permissive and less hierarchical than in classical music. These results contradict the assumption that music from the common-practice era is representative of all Western musics, and challenges music cognition researchers to be more thoughtful when choosing stimuli and models of pitch structure for their experiments.

scholarly journals Probing the minor tonal hierarchy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique T Vuvan ◽  
Jon Prince ◽  
Mark A. Schmuckler
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Probe Tone ◽  
Preceding Context ◽  
Tonal Hierarchy ◽  
Musical Context

One facet of tonality perception that has been fairly understudied in the years since Krumhansl and colleagues’ groundbreaking work on tonality (Krumhansl &amp; Kessler, 1982; Krumhansl &amp; Shepard, 1979) is the music theoretical notion that the minor scale can have one of three distinct forms: natural, harmonic, or melodic. The experiment reported here fills this gap by testing if listeners form distinct mental representations of the minor tonal hierarchy based on the three forms of the minor scale. Listeners heard a musical context (a scale or a sequence of chords) consisting of one of the three minor types (natural, harmonic, or melodic) and rated a probe tone according to how well it belonged with the preceding context. Listeners’ probe tone ratings corresponded well to the minor type that had been heard in the preceding context, regardless of whether the context was scalar or chordal. These data expand psychological research on the perception of tonality, and provide a convenient reference point for researchers investigating the mental representation of Western musical structure.

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