Abstract
The purpose of this research was to investigate a set of factors that may influence the perceived rate of an auditory event. In a paired-comparison task, subjects were presented with a set of music-like patterns that differed in their relative number of contour changes and in the magnitude of pitch skips (Experiment 1) as well as in the compatibility of rhythmic accent structure with the arrangement of pitch relations (Experiment 2). Results indicated that, relative to their standard referents, comparison melodies were judged to unfold more slowly when they displayed more changes in pitch direction, greater pitch distances, and an incompatible rhythmic accent structure. These findings are suggested to stern from animputed velocity hypo thesis, in which people overgeneralize certain invariant relations that typically occur between melodic and temporal accent structure within Western music.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allan, L. G. (1979). The perception of time.Perception & Psychophysics,26, 340–354.
Benjamin, W. (1984). A theory of musical meter.Music Perception,1, 355–413.
Berry, W. (1976).Structural functions in music. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Block, R. A. (1979). Time and consciousness. In G. Underwood & R. Stevens (Eds.),Aspects of consciousness: Vol. 1. Psychological issues (pp. 179–217). London: Academic Press.
Boltz, M. [G.] (1989). Rhythm and “good endings”: Effects of temporal structure on tonality judgments.Perception & Psychophysics,46, 9–17.
Boltz, M. [G.] (1991a). Some structural determinants of melody recall.Memory & Cognition,19, 239–251.
Boltz, M. [G.] (1991b). Time estimation and attentional perspective.Perception & Psychophysics,49, 422–433.
Boltz, M. G. (1992). The remembering of auditory event durations.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,18, 938–956.
Boltz, M. G. (1993). The generation of temporal and melodic expectancies during musical listening.Perception & Psychophysics,53, 585–600.
Boltz, M. G. (1994). Changes in internal tempo and effects on the learning and remembering of event durations.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,20, 1154–1171.
Boltz, M. G. (1995). Effects of event structure on retrospective duration judgments.Perception & Psychophysics,57, 1080–1096.
Boltz, M. G. (1998). The processing of temporal and nontemporal information in the remembering of event durations and musical structure.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,24, 1087–1104.
Boltz, M. G., &Jones, M. R. (1986). Does rule recursion make melodies easier to reproduce? If not, what does?Cognitive Psychology,18, 389–431.
Clarke, E. (1982). Timing in the performance of Erik Satie ’s “Vexations.”Acta Psychologica,50, 1–19.
Clynes, M., &Walker, J. (1982). Neurobiologic functions of rhythm, time and pulse in music. In J. Clynes (Ed.),Music, mind, and brain: The neuropsychology of music (pp. 171–216). New York: Plenum.
Clynes, M., &Walker, J. (1986). Music as time’s measure.Music Perception,4, 85–120.
Cohen, J., &Cooper, P. (1962). New phenomena in apparent duration, distance, and speed.Nature,196, 1233–1234.
Cohen, J., &Cooper, P. (1963). Durée, longeur, et vitesse apparentes d’un voyage.L’Année Psychologique,1, 15–28.
Collier, G. L., &Collier, J. L. (1994). An exploration of the use of tempo in jazz.Music Perception,11, 219–242.
Cooper, G., &Meyer, L. (1960). The rhythmic structure of music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Deutsch, D. (1980). The processing of structured and unstructured tonal sequences.Perception & Psychophysics,28, 381–389.
Deutsch, D., &Feroe, J. (1981). The internal representation of pitch sequences in tonal music.Psychological Review,88, 503–522.
Drake, C., &Botte, M.-C. (1993). Tempo sensitivity in auditory sequences: Evidence for a multiple-look model.Perception & Psychophysics,54, 277–286.
Fraisse, P. (1978). Time and rhythm perception. In E. Carterette & W. Friedman (Eds.),Handbook of perception (Vol. 8, pp. 203–254). New York: Academic Press.
Fraisse, P. (1982). Rhythm and tempo. In D. Deutsch (Ed.),The psychology of music (pp. 149–180). New York: Academic Press.
Fraisse, P. (1984). Perception and estimation of time.Annual Review of Psychology,35, 1–36.
Fraisse, P. (1987). Cognition of time in human activity. In G. d’Ydewalle & W. Lens (Eds.),Cognition in human motivation and learning (pp. 233–259). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Geringer, J. M. (1976). Tuning preferences in recorded orchestral music.Journal of Research in Music Education,24, 169–176.
Geringer, J. M., &Madsen, C. K. (1984). Pitch and tempo discrimination in recorded orchestral music among musicians and nonmusicians.Journal of Research in Music Education,3, 195–204.
Handel, S. (1993). The effect of tempo and tone duration on rhythm discrimination.Perception & Psychophysics,54, 370–382.
Hellstrom, A. (1985). The time-order error and its relatives: Mirrors of cognitive processes in comparing.Psychological Bulletin,97, 35–61.
Jones, M. R. (1981). Music as a stimulus for psychological motion: Part I. Some determinants of expectancies.Psychomusicology,1, 34–51.
Jones, M. R. (1987a). Dynamic pattern structure in music: Recent theory and research.Perception & Psychophysics,41, 621–634.
Jones, M. R. (1987b). Perspectives on musical time. In A. Gabrielsson (Ed.),Action and perception in rhythm and music (pp. 153–175). Stockholm: Royal Swedish Academy of Music Press.
Jones, M. R. &Boltz, M. G. (1989). Dynamic attending and responses to time.Psychological Review,96, 459–491.
Jones, M. R., Boltz, M. [G.], &Kidd, G. (1982). Controlled attending as a function of melodic and temporal context.Perception & Psychophysics,32, 21–218.
Julesz, B., &Hirsh, I. J. (1972). Visual and auditory perception: An essay of comparison. In E. E. David & P. Denes (Eds.),Human communication: A unified view (pp. 283–340). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kramer, J. (1982). Beginnings and endings of Western art music.Canadian University Music Review,3, 1–14.
Kronman, U., &Sundberg, J. (1987). Is the musical ritard an allusion to physical motion? In A. Gabrielsson (Ed.),Action and perception in rhythm and music (pp. 57–68). Stockholm: Royal Swedish Academy of Music Press.
Kubovy, M. (1981). Concurrent-pitch segregation and the theory of indispensable attributes. In M. Kubovy & J. R. Pomerantz (Eds.),Perceptual organization (pp. 55–98). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kuhn, T. L. (1974). Discrimination of modulated beat tempo by professional musicians.Journal of Research in Music Education,22, 270–277.
Kuhn, T. L. (1977). Effects of dynamics, halves of exercise, and trial sequences on tempo accuracy.Journal of Research in Music Education,25, 222–227.
Leblanc, A. (1981). Effects of style, tempo, and performing medium on children’s music preference.Journal of Research in Music Education,29, 143–156.
Leblanc, A., &McCrary, J. (1983). Effects of tempo on children’s music preference.Journal of Research in Music Education,31, 283–294.
Lerdahl, F., &Jackenooff, R. (1983).A generative theory of tonal music. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Levitin, D. J., &Cook, P. R. (1996). Memory for musical tempo: Additional evidence that auditory memory is absolute.Perception & Psychophysics,58, 927–935.
Madsen, C. K. (1979). Modulated beat discrimination among musicians and nonmusicians.Journal of Research in Music Education,27, 57–67.
Marks, L. E. (1978). The unity of the senses. New York: Academic Press.
Marshburn, E., & Jones, M. R. (1985, May). Rhythm recognition as a function of rate: Relative or absolute? Paper presented at the meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.
Meyer, L. B. (1956). Emotion and meaning in music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Monahan, C., &Carterette, E. (1985). Pitch and duration as determinants of musical space.Music Perception,3, 1–32.
Nielzen, S., &Cesarec, Z. (1982). Aspects of tempo and perception of music in mania.Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia,65, 81–85.
Palmer, C., &Krumhansl, C. L. (1987). Independent temporal and pitch structures in determination of musical phrases.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,13, 116–126.
Pierson, K. (1976). Control of walking.Scientific American,235, 72–86.
Povel, D. (1977). Temporal structure of performed music. Some preliminary observations.Acta Psychologica,41, 309–320.
Rasch, R. (1979). Synchronization in performed ensemble music,Acoustica,43, 121–131.
Rasch, R. (1988). Timing and synchronization in ensemble performance. In J. Sloboda (Ed.),Generative processes in music: The psychology of performance. improvisation, and composition (pp. 70–90). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Repp, B. H. (1992). Diversity and commonality in music performance: An analysis of timing microstructure in Schumann’s “Traumerei.”Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,92, 2546–2568.
Schmuckler, M. A. (1990). The performance of global expectations.Psychomusicology.9, 122–147.
Schmuckler, M. A., &Boltz, M. G. (1994). Harmonic and rhythmic influences on musical expectancy.Perception & Psychophysics,56, 313–325.
Stein, J. (1977). Tempo errors and mania.American Journal of Psychiatry,134, 454–456.
Todd, N. (1985). A model of expressive timing in tonal music.Music Perception,3, 33–57.
Todd R. E., Boltz, M. [G.], &Jones, M. R. (1989). The Midilab auditory research system.Psychomusicology,8, 83–96.
Wang, C. C. (1984). Effects of some aspects of rhythm on tempo perception.Journal of Research in Music Education,32, 169–176.
Wang, C. C., &Salzberg, R. S. (1984). Discrimination of modulated music tempo by string students.Journal of Research in Music Education,32, 123–131.
Wapnick, J. (1980). The perception of musical and metronomic tempo change in musicians.Psychology of Music,8, 3–12.
Yarbrough, C. (1987). The effect of musical excerpts on tempo discriminations and preferences of musicians and nonmusicians. In C. K. Madsen & C. A. Prickett (Eds.),Applications of research in music behavior (pp. 175–189). Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Veston, M. (1976).The stratification of musical rhythm. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from Haverford College.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Boltz, M.G. Tempo discrimination of musical patterns: Effects due to pitch and rhythmic structure. Perception & Psychophysics 60, 1357–1373 (1998). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207998
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207998