Transcript Cognition

Psychology of Music
MUSED 681
PERCEPTION & COGNITION
Collect: Research Project Initial Prospectus
Open Discussion of assigned article
Cook, N. (1997). Music and psychology: A mutual regard?
In J. Sloboda & R. Aiello (Eds.), Musical Perceptions
(pp. 66-95). New York: Oxford University Press.
Perception & Cognition
The process of learning involves both
perception and cognition.
Perception: the “process of sensing the environment”
Cognition: “the internal processes of assimilating,
organizing, remembering, and recalling
information”
(Radocy & Boyle, 2003, pp. 4-5)
Perception & Cognition
Dimensions of Auditory Perception
Describe basics of hearing process
Bone/Air Conduction
Critical Band
Chroma
Doppler Effect
Perception & Cognition
Dimensions of Auditory Perception
Humans perceive all things relatively not
absolutely




How long is a quarter note?
How loud is forte?
What constitutes a bright tone?
Sing a C
Perception & Cognition
Dimensions of Auditory Perception
Dynamics: frequency and loudness do interact, but we hear relatively
louder/softer sounds at any given pitch level.
Perception & Cognition
Perception & Cognition
Hearing Impairment

Presbycousis

Noise-induced
28m Americans have hearing loss; 10m is noise-induced
OSHA Standards
< 5% of 6th graders have hearing loss; >60% of college frosh
Ear buds significantly exacerbate the problem
 TTS (Temporary Threshold Shift)
Perception & Cognition
Melody Apraxia (Tune deafness)
Ear (middle and/or inner)
Brain processing
Poor short-term memory for tones
Vocal motor impairment
Perception & Cognition
Music Performance Applications
(Parncutt & McPherson)
 No significant correlation between pitch discrimination skill, pitch
matching (vocal or instr) skill, and performance intonation
 Trained string players: tend toward sharping tones of ascending
tetrachord & flatting descending tones
Opposite for inexperience
 Listeners and performers prefer a stretched octave
 Performance Intonation
 Improves with experience?
 Is there improvement in pitch matching and discrimination, or do those
who are weak at this quit (thereby raising the mean scores)?
Perception & Cognition
Music Performance Applications
(Parncutt & McPherson)
 Best model for young singers to match: unison (male falsetto), limited
vibrato
 Best model for young instrumentalists to match: same instrument
 Provide in-tune examples
(keep piano in tune!; use this to get budget for semi-annual tuning)
 No difference in performance intonation as a result of tuning to a target
pitch ahead of time (individual wind player performing with recorded
ensemble)
 Implications of Fletcher-Munson curves for performer
The Physics of Music
Room Acoustics
Resonance: reinforcement or interference/dampening of
vibrations
Resonator: anything that can vibrate
The Physics of Music
Room Acoustics




Reverberation Time = time for sound to decay to one millionth (.000001) of
original intensity
Labels
Live = longer = wet
Dead = short = dry
Function of room volume and construction
Larger = longer
More absorbent = shorter
Ideal varies depending on musical medium
Generally between 1.0 and 1.7 sec
The Physics of Music
Room Acoustics
Interference/cancellation (mentioned earlier)
Reflection/Absorption
Soft vs. Hard surfaces
Refraction (bending): hearing a band from a long distance
while others closer (but different location/direction) hear
nothing
Diffraction: passing through small openings or around
corners
Some waves will be changed, depending on size, etc.
The Physics of Music
Room Acoustics
Sound distribution – even is preferable
No live and dead spots
Even is encouraged by rough, irregular surfaces;
NON-symmetrical
The Physics of Music
Room Acoustics
Precedence (Directional) Effect
Perception & Cognition
COGNITION
The internal processes of assimilating, organizing,
remembering, and recalling information.
Perception & Cognition
Learning Theory
 Behaviorism
 Founded in the empirically established processes of classical
conditioning (Pavlov, 1927) and operant conditioning
(Skinner, 1938).
 Association learning, a more general term, results as a person
learns to associate a pleasing or displeasing result with a
specific behavior: immediate and consistent reinforcement
progressively shapes a desired response.
Perception & Cognition
Learning Theory
 Cognitivism
 A response to behaviorism: people are not “programmed
animals” that merely respond to environmental stimuli; people
are rational beings that require active participation in order to
learn, and whose actions are a consequence of thinking.
 The mind is analogous to a computer
 Evolved out of the Gestalt psychology of the 1930s, which
postulated that learners engage in proactive problem solving
and do not simply react to new experiences.
Perception & Cognition
Learning Theory
 Cognitivism
 “Learners actively construct knowledge on the basis of their
reactions to sensory stimuli” (Taetle & Cutietta, 2002, p. 282);
this proactive processing of information is unique for each
individual.
 Personal perception becomes profoundly significant,
particularly in a content area such as music, due to the
potential that individual learners will perceive the same
musical input quite differently.
Perception & Cognition
Learning Theory
Gagné’s integration of behaviorism and cognitivism
 Chaining (Gagné, 1985) results when very simple stimulus-response
connections are linked together in sequence, thereby creating more
complex and higher-order associations.
 Pivot point of Encoding
The process of encoding, and the subsequent entry of the encoded information
into long-term memory, may be considered the central and critical event in an
act of learning…. This pivotal process of encoding may obviously be affected
by events in the learner’s environment or events planned as part of instruction.
A particular scheme for encoding may be directly communicated to the
learner…. As a second possibility, learners may be encouraged to provide their
own individual encoding schemes. (p. 82).
Perception & Cognition
Learning Theory
 Cognitive theory highlights the importance of considering
all perceptual differences, including those related to
maturation.
 Developmental Theory
 Piaget
Sensorimotor, Pre-Operational, Concrete Operations,
Formal Operations
 Bruner
Enactive, Iconic, and Symbolic
Next Week
UPDATE
No class next Thursday
No eJournal due on Wednesday, Oct. ???
Revised eJournal dates:
Sept. 19, 26 (full)
October 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 (full)
November 7 (full)
Nov. 14 (response to Nov. 8 lecture only)
Dec. 5 (summary of Nov. 29 presentations)
Dec. 12 (summary of Dec. 6 presentations)
• Project Draft #1
Next Week
• Reading assignments
Chs. 7 & 9
Sound Connections Chs. 2 & 3 (Course Packet)
• eJournal due Wednesday 8 AM
• Continue work on Research Project Draft #1
SAFE TRAVELS