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Dynamic melodic expectancy

Aarden, Bret J.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1060969388

Abstract Details

2003, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Music.
The most common method for measuring melodic expectancy is the “probe-tone” design, which relies on a retrospective report of expectancy. Here a direct measure of expectancy is introduced, one that uses a speeded, serial categorization task. An analysis of the reaction time data showed that “Implication-Realization” contour models of melodic expectancy provide a good fit. Further analysis suggests that some assumptions of these contour models may not be valid. The traditional “key profile” model of tonality was not found to contribute significantly to the model. Following Krumhansl’s (1990) argument that tonality is learned from the statistical distribution of scale degrees, a tonality model based on the actual probability of scale degrees did significantly improve the fit of the model. It is proposed that the probe-tone method for measuring key profiles encourages listeners to treat the probe tone as being in phrase-final position. Indeed, the key profile was found to be much more similar to the distribution of phrase-final notes than to the distribution of all melodic notes. A second experiment measured reaction times to notes that subjects expected to be phrase-final. In this experiment the key profile contributed significantly to the fit of the model. It is concluded that the probe-tone design creates a task demand to hear the tone as a phrase-final note, and the key profile reflects a learned sensitivity to the distribution of notes at ends of melodies. The “key profile” produced by the new reaction-time design is apparently related to the general distribution of notes in melodies. The results of this study indicate that the relationship between melodic structure and melodic expectation is more straightforward than has been previously demonstrated. Melodic expectation appears to be related directly to the structure and distribution of events in the music.
David Huron (Advisor)
119 p.
Music; Psychology, Cognitive
melodic expectancy; music theory; music cognition; music perception; tonality; key profiles; tonal hierarchy; reaction time; retrospective perception; probe tone; Implication-Realization theory; information theory

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Aarden, B. J. (2003). Dynamic melodic expectancy [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1060969388

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Aarden, Bret. Dynamic melodic expectancy. 2003. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1060969388.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Aarden, Bret. "Dynamic melodic expectancy." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1060969388

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.