Tonal schemas: Evidence obtained by probing distorted musical scales

Listeners were presented with a normal major diatonic scale or with a distortion of that scale obtained either by stretching or by equalizing its intervals. The scale was followed by a test tone, selected from a series of quarter tones spanning the range of the scale, and listeners rated how well the test tone fit in with the scale. The pattern of ratings indicated that listeners interpreted the successive tones of each scale by means of a template-like tonal schema tuned to the usual spacing of the major diatonic scale. For the scale obtained by stretching the major scale to span a semitone more than an octave, the schema evidently shifted monotonically in pitch to accommodate each successive tone. For the scale obtained by making all seven intervals in the scale equal, the schema tended to impose its tonal structure despite the absence of the unequal spacing expected by the schema, and led to illusory impressions that the (usually smaller) third and seventh intervals, though now equal, were larger than the other intervals.

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