Bottom-up predictive processing of melodic stimuli
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1
University of Sydney, Medicine, Australia
Music engages predictive mechanisms that are evolutionarily established and thought to underlie musical affect. The current study measures sensory-driven expectancy, presenting melodic stimuli that either violate or realize probable pitch-contour structures. Typical measures of musical expectancy employed by prior studies require a subjective post-outcome appraisal and are thus subject to top-down cognitive biases. Here, a reaction time task is utilized with the presupposition that neural processing is directly proportional to expectation, and that the time-pressure of responding creates an impediment to retrospective appraisal and reinterpretation. Three-note sequences were presented and upon hearing the third, listeners identified the contour direction by registering a 3AFC speeded response ('up/down/same'). Three well-established predictors were coded: Proximity (expected small melodic leaps), Inertia (expected melodic continuations in the same registral direction following a small interval) and Post-skip Reversal (expected melodic continuations in the opposite registral direction following a large interval). Results show support for Inertia but not for Proximity or Post-skip Reversal, suggesting that a veridical measurement of expectancy generated by the melodic context was confounded by the limited resolution with which listeners accurately identify pitch-direction, despite the smallest tested interval (1 semitone) being greater than reported frequency difference limens. A subsequent experiment was conducted in which listeners registered speeded responses to two note sequences by either identifying pitch direction (up/down/same) or detecting a pitch change (same/different). Results suggest that the two processes are perceptually separable and are consistent with studies showing elevated thresholds for identifying pitch direction relative to change detection. This result demonstrates the viability of using neural processing latency as a measure of threshold sensitivity.
Keywords:
Pitch Perception,
prediction,
sensory processing,
music cognition,
musical affect
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Sensation and Perception
Citation:
Sankaran
N,
Carlile
S and
Meliton
F
(2015). Bottom-up predictive processing of melodic stimuli.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00362
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Narayan Sankaran, University of Sydney, Medicine, Sydney, Australia, narayan.sankaran@sydney.edu.au