Tonal expectations influence pitch perception.

Full Abstract

In this study, we investigated the influence of tonal relatedness on pitch perception in melodies. Tonal expectations for target tones were manipulated in melodic contexts while controlling sensory expectations, thus allowing us to assess specifically the influence oftonal expectations on pitch perception. Three experimentsprovided converging evidence that tonal relatedness modulates pitch perception in nonmusician listeners. Experiment 1 showed, with a rating task, the influence of the tonal relatedness of a target tone on listeners' judgments of tuning/mistuning. Experiment 2 showed, with a priming task, that pitch processing of in-tune tones was faster for tonally related targets than for less related targets. Experiment 3 showed, with a comparison task, that discrimination performance for small mistunings was better when the to-be-compared tones were tonally related to the melodic context. Findings are discussed in relation to psychoacoustic research on contextual pitch perception and to studies showing facilitation of early processing steps via knowledge- and attention-related processes.

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Author information

Author/s: Marmel, F (F); Tillmann, B (B); Dowling, W J (WJ);

Affiliation: Université de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5020, Lyon, France. frederic.marmel(-atsign-)olfac.univ-lyon1.fr

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Perception & psychophysics (Percept Psychophys), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 70 (issue 5) : pp 841-52

Dates: Created 2008/07/10; Completed 2008/08/12;

PMID: 18613632, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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