Probe Tone Paradigm Reveals Less Differentiated Tonal Hierarchy in Rock Music

Krumhansl and 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. This line of research contradicts the idea that music from the common-practice era is representative of all Western musics, and challenges music cognition researchers to explore style-appropriate stimuli and models of pitch structure for their experiments.

An Examination of Asymmetry in Adult Tympanometric Measures

Background During audiologic evaluations, an examination of interaural asymmetry is commonly evaluated. To date, however, interaural differences for tympanometric indices have not been reported for adults. Without documented tympanometric right-left differences, one cannot determine if asymmetries are normal or are indicative of significant clinical asymmetries. Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate interaural asymmetries in peak compensated static acoustic admittance (Ytm), equivalent ear canal volume (Vea), tympanometric peak pressure (TPP), and tympanometric width (TW) in normal adults. Research Design Descriptive, correlational, and inferential measures designs were employed. Study Sample Participants were 188 otologically normal Caucasian young adults (i.e., 77 females and 111 males; M = 23.0 years, standard deviation [SD] = 2.7, range = 18–30 years). Data Collection and Analyses Ytm, Vea, TPP, and TW measures were obtained bilaterally from an admittance tympanogram using a 226 Hz probe tone. Separate two-factor mixed measures analysis of variance examined the effect of ear and sex for each tympanometric index. Correlation analyses examined the association between right and left ear indices. Interaural differences in tympanometric indices were examined with independent t-tests. Critical differences, for deciding if two tympanometric indices are different between ears, were computed from the standard deviations of the right–left ear difference for statistical confidence levels of 85, 90, 95, and 99%. Results The effect of ear was not statistically significant (p > 0.05) on any tympanometric index. Females had significantly lower Ytm and smaller Vea measures than males (p < 0.05). Correlations between all right and left tympanometric indices were positive and statistically significant (p < 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in interaural differences for any of the tympanometric indices as a function of sex (p > 0.05). Critical differences, for confidence levels for 85% to 99% confidence ranged from ± 0.20–0.36 mmhos for Ytm, ± 0.23–0.41 cm3 for Vea, ± 11.1–19.8 daPa for TPP, and ± 27.2–48.7 daPa for TW. Conclusion A clinician can use these critical differences to determine if tympanometric index interaural differences in ears of young normal Caucasian adults are statistically significant.

Towards a Functional Hearing Test for Musicians: The Probe Tone Method

Towards a Functional Hearing Test for Musicians: The Probe Tone Method

Effect of age on acoustic reflex thresholds in neonates and infants with normal hearing

<p><strong>Background:</strong> High frequency (1000 Hz) probe tone holds substantial promise for carrying out acoustic reflexes in neonates and infants. A limited number of studies indicates that acoustic reflex thresholds (ART) also change significantly with age as the newborn hearing system matures. However, there is a need for obtaining more data before using it in a clinical population. The aim was to investigate effect of age of infants on ARTs. Effect of activator signal was also explored. <strong></strong></p><p><strong>Methods:</strong> ARTs were monitored using a 1 kHz probe tone for the 500 Hz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, and 4 kHz pure tone activators in neonates and infants in the age range of 6 to 8 weeks were analysed.</p><p><strong>Results</strong>: The mean ARTs for neonates were lower compared to infants. Results of repeated measure ANOVA showed that there was a statistically significant age effect. Also, ARTs for high frequency activator signals were significantly higher than the ARTs for low frequency signals.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> The acoustic reflexes can be elicited for 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz when monitored using a 1000 Hz probe tone. There is an effect of age and activator signal on the acoustic reflex threshold. The data obtained in the present study can serve as normative for 0-1-week neonates and 6-8-weeks infants.</p>

Probe Tone Paradigm Reveals Less Differentiated Tonal Hierarchy in Rock Music

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.

The Role of the Clinically Obtained Acoustic Reflex as a Research Tool for Subclinical Hearing Pathologies

The acoustic reflex (AR) shows promise as an objective test for the presence of cochlear synaptopathy in rodents. The AR has also been shown to be reduced in humans with tinnitus compared to those without. The aim of the present study was twofold: (a) to determine if AR strength (quantified as both threshold and growth) varied with lifetime noise exposure, and thus provided an estimate of the degree of synaptopathy and (b) to identify which factors should be considered when using the AR as a quantitative measure rather than just present/absent responses. AR thresholds and growth functions were measured using ipsilateral and contralateral, broadband and tonal elicitors in adults with normal hearing and varying levels of lifetime noise exposure. Only the clinical standard 226 Hz probe tone was used. AR threshold and growth were not related to lifetime noise exposure, suggesting that routine clinical AR measures are not a sensitive measure when investigating the effects of noise exposure in audiometrically normal listeners. Our secondary, exploratory analyses revealed that AR threshold and growth were significantly related to middle-ear compliance. Listeners with higher middle-ear compliance (though still in the clinically normal range) showed lower AR thresholds and steeper AR growth functions. Furthermore, there was a difference in middle-ear compliance between the sexes, with males showing higher middle-ear compliance values than females. Therefore, it may be necessary to factor middle-ear compliance values into any analysis that uses the AR as an estimate of auditory function.

Probing the minor tonal hierarchy

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.

Tonal hierarchy representations in auditory imagery

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.