Adaptive memory representations of musical tempo and pitch

Abstract

Recent studies showed that the perception of extremely shifted versions of familiar pieces of music affects judgements about the original tempo and pitch. This paper aims to give an overview on musical adaptation effects (MAEs) for musical tempo and pitch. The focus is set on the questions if the recently found MAEs are generally comparable between the tempo and the pitch domain, and if they can be found to the same extent. In a series of eight empirical studies (N = 288, mean age = 26, SD = 8.6, 78 % female participants) the influence of extremely shifted versions (tempo-accelerated or pitch-shifted) of audio signals on memory representations was tested. Within this paper the focus will be set on a study on musical pitch (N = 30, mean age = 23, SD = 3, 77 % female participants). We used six TV themes, pre-selected for familiarity, as stimuli. The influence of different presentation conditions on the persistency and comparability of MAEs in the time and pitch domain were tested. The results of repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed treatment x probe interactions. Overall, participants had difficulties to distinguish between a shifted and an original probe version after hearing an extreme version in the treatment. MAEs vary between the domains of interest. The adaptation effects for musical tempo are stronger and more systematic than the effects found for musical pitch. The results give further insight into the memory representations of musical pitch in comparison with the results from the time domain.