Timbre priming effects and expectation in melody

Abstract In this study, participants identified the timbre of pitches when they occurred in isolation, and again when they occurred appended to short melodies. For pitches congruent with the melody, timbre identification generally improved when the pitches were appended to the melody in comparison to when they occurred in isolation. In addition, the amount of improvement was broadly consistent with theoretical accounts of the degree to which the pitches were expected, given the preceding melody. This finding relates both to proposed interactions in processing between pitch and timbre, and to theoretical work regarding melodic expectations. It suggests that melodic expectations can be revealed implicitly, and is consistent with the idea that they operate at a relatively early stage of perceptual processing. In this study, priming effects were shown in listeners without musical training, demonstrating that expectations can develop in response to passive exposure to music, not only in response to formal training.

[1]  L. Cuddy,et al.  Expectancies generated by melodic intervals: Perceptual judgments of melodic continuity , 1995, Perception & psychophysics.

[2]  M. Schmuckler.  Expectation in music: Investigation of melodic and harmonic processes. , 1989 .

[3]  Barbara Tillmann,et al.  A comparative review of priming effects in language and music , 2002 .

[4]  E. Margulis.  A Model of Melodic Expectation , 2005 .

[5]  J. Bharucha,et al.  Anchoring effects in music: The resolution of dissonance , 1984, Cognitive Psychology.

[6]  Schellenberg Eg.  Expectancy in melody: tests of the implication-realization model , 1996 .

[7]  E. Narmour.  The Analysis and Cognition of Melodic Complexity: The Implication-Realization Model , 1992 .

[8]  Steve L Arson.  Musical Forces and Melodic Expectations: Comparing Computer Models and Experimental Results , 2004 .

[9]  William Eastman Lake,et al.  Melodic perception and cognition : the influence of tonality , 1987 .

[10]  W. Dowling.  Emotion and Meaning in Music , 2008 .

[11]  Robert J Zatorre,et al.  Influence of tonal context and timbral variation on perception of pitch , 2002, Perception & Psychophysics.

[12]  Bret Aarden.  Dynamic melodic expectancy , 2003 .

[13]  P Iverson,et al.  Perceptual interactions between musical pitch and timbre. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[14]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  A power primer. , 1992, Psychological bulletin.

[15]  James C. Carlsen.  Some factors which influence melodic expectancy , 1981 .

[16]  J. Bharucha,et al.  Reaction time and musical expectancy: priming of chords. , 1986, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[17]  E. Narmour.  The analysis and cognition of basic melodic structures , 1992 .

[18]  E. Schellenberg,et al.  Expectancy in melody: tests of the implication-realization model , 1996, Cognition.

[19]  J. Bharucha,et al.  Modularity in musical processing: the automaticity of harmonic priming. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.