Search

An experiment is reported, showing that short-term memory for pitch in absolute pitch (AP) possessors, while substantially more accurate than in AP nonpossessors, is also subject to illusory conjunctions of pitch and time and so can be distorted or enhanced by a single tone embedded in a sequence of six other tones. Both AP possessors and AP nonpossessors performed a short-term memory task. A test tone was presented, then a sequence of six intervening tones, and then a probe tone. The test and probe tones either were identical in pitch or differed by a semitone. The AP nonpossessors judged whether the test and probe tones were the same or different, and the AP possessors identified the test and probe tones by name. In some conditions, a tone of identical pitch to the probe tone or an octave removed from this tone was included in the intervening sequence. In both the AP possessors and AP nonpossessors, this illusion-producing tone increased judgments that the test and probe tones were identical. These results accord with a model of the system underlying short-term memory for pitch proposed earlier and show that this system is bidimensional in nature, involving both pitch height and pitch class.

Oligomeric oxymethylene dimethyl ethers (OMEn, CH3(OCH2)nOCH3, n = 1 – 5) are promising diesel fuels for the reduction of harmful emissions. If OMEs are produced from dimethoxymethane and trioxane, the resulting OME mixtures usually contain residual trioxane which appears, after rectification, in the OME2 fraction. To circumvent this obstacle, substoichiometric amounts of trioxane have been employed in OME synthesis. Thus, OME2 samples with high purity could be prepared. Physicochemical and fuel data of high purity OME2 and higher OMEs have been determined to supplement previously reported data.

Our community has lost a truly exceptional man and scholar who combined the scientific worlds of acoustics, psychology, and music in a unique way during his career that spanned over half a century. Andrzej Rakowski, Emeritus Professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music passed away on April 3, 2018 in Warsaw, Poland, at the age of 87. He was an internationally acclaimed authority on musical acoustics and psychoacoustics and a major figure in auditory perception research. He was born in Warsaw on June 16, 1931. After graduating in electronic engineering (Warsaw University of Technology, M. Sc. in 1957) and music theory (State Higher School of Music in Warsaw, M. A. in 1958), he went to Great Britain on a British Council Scholarship (1958/59) and worked at Durham University, King's College, Newcastle upon Tyne with one of the most renowned specialists on acoustics of musical instruments, Professor E. G. Richardson. Later, after defending his doctoral dissertation (Warsaw University of Technology, D. Sc. in 1963, thesis: “Initial transients in sounds of wind instruments”) he was nominated to the position of Assistant Professor at the newly opened Department of Sound Engineering in Warsaw Higher School of Music (since 2008, Fryderyk Chopin Music University). His research interest turned in the direction of music psychoacoustics and he focused on the issues concerning the perception of pitch. He received a second doctoral degree ( habilitation ) in art sciences (musicology) from the University of Warsaw in 1977 (thesis: “Categorical perception of pitch in music”) and became an associate professor (1982) and then a full-professor (1989), as conferred by the President …

Chapter 9 discusses the rare phenomenon of musical hallucinations. For some they are unwanted, persistent, and dramatically intrusive. Others hear phantom music that is sophisticated, beautiful, and sometimes original. People often describe their hallucinated music in terms of “playlists” composed of music in many different genres, from which fragments seem randomly selected. One such playlist might include folk songs, religious hymns, Christmas carols, patriotic songs, and children’s songs. The music often sounds as though played on a scratched or broken record, or on a tape constantly being rewound. Musical hallucinations are most likely to be experienced by elderly people with hearing loss, but young people with normal hearing, including excellent musicians, also experience them. Some may be caused by an unusually large amount of brain activation, particularly in the temporal lobe. People who have been isolated for long periods may also experience hallucinations, including of music. Hallucinations of speech are also described and discussed. Reports of musical hallucinations show that the different attributes of music can be retrieved or lost independently. A hallucinated piece might be heard in the wrong tempo or loudness, or as played by an unknown instrument. Famous musicians who hallucinated music include Robert Schumann, Bedřich Smetana, and Sviatislav Richter.

Chapter 6. discusses absolute pitch (or “perfect pitch”)—the rare ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note. It is argued that acquiring absolute pitch requires exposure to certain environmental influences during a critical period early in life. This ability is associated with early musical training—and the earlier the onset of training the stronger the association. The author and her coworkers have found at music conservatories and universities in the United States and China that the earlier students had begun taking music lessons, the greater the probability that they possessed absolute pitch. We also found that the prevalence of absolute pitch is much higher among people who speak a tone language—in which the meaning of a word changes depending on the pitch or pitches in which it is spoken. It is therefore argued that when babies learn to speak a tone language, they automatically associate pitches with words, and so develop absolute pitch for the words they hear. Therefore when they begin taking music lessons, their brain circuitry for absolute pitch is already in place. Speakers of non-tone languages are therefore at a disadvantage compared with tone-language speakers for acquiring absolute pitch. Further work by the author and colleagues also point to a genetic factor in acquiring absolute pitch. Also discussed are the neurological correlates of absolute pitch, and its presence in some autistic savants, and in people who are blind. It also considers the decline of absolute pitch with aging, and distortions in absolute pitch judgment under certain medications.

Chapter 8 begins with “stuck tunes” or “earworms,” a malady that strikes most people at times: A tune or other musical fragment bores deep into our heads and replays itself over and over, sometimes for hours, days, or even weeks. It is argued that the present epidemic of earworms is partly due to background music being heard everywhere, and to people listening to music fairly continuously over their radios, televisions, iPods, and other devices. This constant exposure to music could sensitize our music processing systems so strongly that they tend to fire spontaneously. Several famous musicians have publically decried the ubiquity of background music, arguing that it debases our musical experience. In the past, all music was sung or played live, and in certain venues such as churches, concert and dance halls, or at special events such as birthday and wedding celebrations. Another source of earworms may be the frequent repetition of phrases within a song, a device that is now extremely common in popular music. The popularity of a song based on sales, radio play, and online streaming increases with the amount of repetition within the song. The tendency for music to get stuck in our heads makes it ideal for radio and TV advertisements—a catchy tune can turn into an earworm, and carry the name of the product along with it.

Chapter 4 explores a class of musical illusions and paradoxes that involve the circular dimension of pitch. Pitch can be described in terms of two dimensions. The first is called pitch height, which can be experienced by sweeping one’s hand from left to right up a piano keyboard. The second is a circular dimension known as pitch class, which defines the position of a tone within the octave. Circularity effects in music are analogous to many of the visual works of M. C. Escher, and have been employed in music for hundreds of years. However, with the advent of computer music, striking pitch circularities became possible. The circular scales invented by Roger Shepard (based on Shepard tones) and circular glides invented by Jean-Claude Risset are explored. These remarkable illusions of ever-increasing (or ever-decreasing) pitch are presented as sound examples. They have powerful emotional effects, and their influence in musical compositions, such as the soundtracks and sound design of The Dark Knight and Dunkirk, is described. A new way of producing pitch circularity, which was invented by the author, is also discussed. This new algorithm can be used with natural instrument sounds, and so opens the door to new compositional opportunities.

Chapter 11 explores relationships between speech and music. The history of thought about these relationships is reviewed. The importance of prosody in speech—musical qualities such as variations in pitch, tempo, timing, loudness, and sound quality—is discussed. There follow reviews of the emotional response of infants to the musical qualities of their mothers’ speech, and how such qualities help children acquire language. Further studies are discussed indicating that musical training aids children in processing the prosodic qualities of speech. Other studies show an influence of language on music perception. The tritone paradox, discussed in Chapter 5, shows that how people hear a pattern of tones can vary with the language or dialect to which they were exposed in childhood. Also, as discussed in Chapter 6, speakers of tone language, such as Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese, have a far higher prevalence of absolute pitch in music than do speakers of non-tone languages such as English. Other work has shown an influence of language on the perception of timing in music perception, and on musical composition. Yet music and language generally differ in their physical characteristics and functions. Whereas speech serves primarily to inform the listener about the world, music modulates feelings and emotions. Last, the question of how music and speech evolved is discussed, and it is argued that they may both have their origins in a vocal generative system called musical protolanguage.

Chapter 3 first explores the principles by which we organize elements of an array into groupings. The Gestalt psychologists proposed a set of grouping principles that have profoundly influenced the study of hearing and vision ever since—these include “proximity,” “similarity,” “good continuation,” “common fate,” and “closure.” Passages of conventional tonal music illustrating these principles are described, along with several illusions and other surprising characteristics of music and speech, all presented as sound examples. They involve the segregation of pitch sequences into separate streams based on proximity in pitch or in time, and also on timbre or sound quality. Figure–ground relationships, analogous to those in vision, are also discussed. Much information arrives at our sense organs in fragmented form, and the perceptual system needs to infer continuities between the fragments, and fill in the gaps appropriately. It is shown that this occurs in both music and speech. We have evolved mechanisms to perform these tasks, but these mechanisms often fool us into “hearing” sounds that are not really there. Another approach to perceptual organization in music exploits the use of orchestral sound textures to create ambiguous images. This approach has been used to excellent effect in 20th-century music such as film scores; for example, it contributes to the mysterious ambience in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

THIS BOOK IS about the auditory system—its remarkable capabilities, its quirkishness, and its surprising failures, particularly as revealed in our perception of music and speech. Over the last few years, scientists have made dramatic advances in understanding the nature of this system. These have involved research in many disciplines, including psychology, psychoacoustics, neuroscience, music theory, physics, engineering, computer science, and linguistics. I hope to convey to you some of the discoveries and conclusions that have resulted from these findings, from the involvement of different brain regions in analyzing the various characteristics of sound, to the principles by which we organize the patterns of sound we hear and represent them in memory. I will be focusing on my own research, and hope to communicate to you the excitement of carrying out explorations in this field, much of which is still uncharted territory, and where there are so many discoveries still to be made....

Chapter 1 reviews the history of thought concerning specialization of function in the brain, particularly regarding speech and music. This history begins in the nineteenth century with the work of the phrenologists Gall and Spurzheim, and later with studies of brain-damaged patients, particularly by Broca and Wernicke. It continues into the mid-twentieth century with the work of Luria and others, also focusing on patients who have suffered brain damage, then considers recent work. The roles of the left and right hemispheres are discussed, particularly their roles in speech. The abilities of left-handers, right-handers, and mixed-handers are compared, especially relating to music and speech. This chapter is a prelude to Chapter 2, which explores a number of musical illusions that, statistically, are heard differently by left- and right-handers.

In this groundbreaking synthesis of art and science, Diana Deutsch, one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of music, shows how illusions of music and speech – many of which she discovered - have fundamentally altered thinking about the brain. These astonishing illusions show that people can differ strikingly in how they hear musical patterns - differences that reflect both variations in brain organization and influences of language on music perception. They lead Deutsch to examine questions such as: When an orchestra performs a symphony, what is the ‘real’ music? Is it in the mind of the composer, or the conductor, or different members of the audience? Deutsch also explores extremes of musical ability, and other rare responses to music and speech. Why is perfect pitch so rare? Why are some people unable to recognize simple tunes? Why do some people hallucinate music or speech? Why do we hear phantom words and phrases? Why are most people subject to stuck tunes, or ‘earworms’? Why do we hear a spoken phrase as sung just because it is presented repeatedly? In evaluating these questions, she also shows how music and speech are intertwined, and argues that they stem from an early form of communication that had elements of both. Many of the illusions described here are so striking and paradoxical that you need to hear them to believe them. So the book enables you to listen to the sounds that are described while reading about them.

The Conclusion draws together the findings concerning music and speech that are explored in the book, and the insights derived from these findings. Much of the book is concerned with illusions. Some of the illusions reflect huge differences between people in how they perceive simple musical patterns. These differences suggest variations in brain organization and environmental exposure. Another way in which these illusions shed light on hearing involves illusory conjunctions. These lead to the conclusion that, normally, the process of analyzing sound includes the operation of specialized modules that each analyze a particular attribute, and that we combine the outputs of these modules to obtain an integrated percept. This process usually leads us to perceive sounds correctly, but it breaks down under certain circumstances, producing illusions. Further threads that run through the book involve relationships between music and speech; the importance of unconscious inference, or “top-down processing” on our perception of sound; and extremes of musical ability, which are shown to be the products of both innate and environmental factors. It is also shown that earworms and musical hallucinations highlight the vital role played by the inner workings of our musical minds in determining what we hear. The extraordinary phenomena explored in this book lead us to conclude that the hearing mechanism did not arise as a coherent, integrated whole, but rather developed as a set of different, though interconnected, mechanisms. From another perspective, they elucidate factors involved in listening to music in everyday life.

Chapter 2 focuses on musical illusions that involve stereo sounds that were discovered by the author. These are described and demonstrated as sound examples. In each illusion, two simultaneous streams of tones are played, one to the listener’s right and the other to their left. The tones are perceptually reorganized in space, so that the melodies we hear are quite different from those that are really being played. Most people tend to hear the higher tones as coming from their right and the lower tones as coming from their left, but other people hear the illusions differently. These perceptual differences depend statistically on the listener’s handedness, so that left-handers are more likely than right-handers to obtain different illusions. So not only do we hear these patterns “wrongly,” but we also hear them differently from each other. The illusions also show that listeners are strongly influenced by their assumptions concerning what is likely to occur—termed unconscious inference or top-down processing. In each illusion, sequences coming from both the right and the left channels consist of tones that leap around in pitch. However, listeners instead create in their minds patterns that do not really exist: They perceive two smooth melodies, each in a different pitch range. The illusions are not simply quirks of artificial sounds generated in the laboratory. Instead, related effects occur in music that is produced by natural instrument sounds, and can even be found in conventional orchestral music. Other related effects are also discussed.

Chapter 5 explores the tritone paradox—a musical illusion that was discovered by the author. Its basic pattern consists of two computer-generated tones that are related by a half-octave (i.e., a tritone). These tones are well defined in pitch class (note name) but ambiguous in pitch height. When one of these tone pairs is played in succession, some people hear an ascending pattern, yet other people hear a descending one. Indeed, a group of people will disagree completely among themselves as to whether such a pair of tones is moving up or down in pitch. Furthermore, any one person hears one of these tone pairs as ascending or descending depending on their note names (such as C–F♯, or G♯–D). How people hear the tritone paradox varies with the geographic location in which they grew up—and so with their native language or dialect. Native English-speaking Californians hear this pattern differently from natives of the south of England. People who are natives of Vietnam hear the pattern quite differently from native English-speaking Californians. The tritone paradox shows, therefore, that the way we perceive music is related to our language, and generally reveals strong effects of our memories and expectations on how we hear music. It also has important implications for absolute pitch (or “perfect pitch”)—the rare ability to name a musical note that is presented in isolation. People make orderly judgments of the tritone paradox, even though they cannot name the notes that they are judging, so they must have an implicit form of absolute pitch.

Chapter 7 discusses the fact that when listening to speech, the words and phrases we hear are strongly influenced by our knowledge, beliefs, and expectations. We therefore often mishear words and phrases, and are subject to compelling illusions. One illusion that was created by the author is called phantom words, and examples of this illusion are presented. A sequence is played consisting of two words, or a single word composed of two syllables, and these are repeated many times. The same sequence is presented via two stereo loudspeakers, but offset in time so that when the first sound is coming from the speaker on the left, the second sound is coming from the speaker on the right, and vice versa. Because the signals from the two speakers are mixed in the air, we can create in our minds many different combinations of sounds. Many people initially hear a jumble of meaningless sounds, but distinct words and phrases later emerge, followed by new words and phrases. Nonsense words and musical sounds sometimes appear mixed in with meaningful words. The words and phrases often appear to be spoken in strange or “foreign” accents—presumably listeners are perceptually organizing the sounds into words and phrases that are meaningful to them, even though they appear distorted in consequence. These phantom words are similar to those reported by people who believe they come from the spirit world. Also discussed is the technique of recording spoken phrases backward and playing them forward, leading to the claim that satanic messages can be heard from these recordings.

Chapter 10 begins with the author’s discovery that a phrase she had enunciated—“Sometimes behave so strangely”—when presented repeatedly, came to be heard as sung rather than spoken. This illusion is presented as a sound example. It shows that speech can be perceptually transformed into song without altering the sounds in any way, or by adding any musical context, but simply by repeating a phrase several times over. The speech-to-song illusion, as Deutsch named it, has no obvious explanation in terms of current scientific thinking about the neural underpinnings of speech and music. Many researchers believe that speech and music are each analyzed in independent modules, based on their physical characteristics. This view was supported by studies of stroke patients, some of whom lost their power of speech while their musical abilities remained intact, whereas others lost aspects of musical ability while their speech remained normal. In contrast, philosophers and composers throughout the ages have argued that a continuum extends from ordinary speech at one end to song at the other, with emotional and heavily intoned speech in between. Some recent brain-scanning studies have supported the idea that speech and song are subserved by the same circuitry, while others have shown that song involves more brain regions than speech. Evidence for these different views are currently being debated, but the exact explanation for the speech-to-song illusion remains a mystery.

A methanol catalyst based on Cu/ZnO/Al 2 O 3 (CZA) was prepared and mixed with four different solid acids, a pure γ-Al 2 O 3 , a SiO 2 -doped γ-Al 2 O 3 , an AlPO 4 -doped γ-Al 2 O 3 and the zeolite H-MFI 400, respectively. These admixed catalyst systems were tested in the direct synthesis of dimethyl ether from CO-rich synthesis gas (CO:H 2 = 1), which is typical for biomass-derived synthesis gas. Reactions were carried out in a laboratory plant at 250 °C and 51 bar for 120 h time-on-stream followed by catalyst passivation with O 2 and regeneration by hydrogenation. After catalyst regeneration, the reaction was run again for another 72 h. The catalyst system containing the zeolite exhibited highest CO-conversion. However, all catalysts showed a drop of activity after the passivation- and regeneration-process and the system with the SiO 2 -doped γ-Al 2 O 3 showed the lowest loss of activity. Investigation of the catalysts after reaction by N 2 O-pulse chemisorption and XRD revealed that agglomeration of catalyst species took place leading to an increased Cu 0 -particle size for all systems. This phenomenon was less pronounced in the case of the system containing the SiO 2 -doped γ-Al 2 O 3 . Thus, the main cause of catalyst deactivation was found to be sintering of the catalytically active components.

The relationship between psychology and music is characteristic of that between a new science and an established discipline. Western music theory has a very old tradition, dating at least from the time of Pythagoras; and the philosophical underpinnings of this tradition that were established in ancient times still exist today. Most characteristic of this tradition is its rationalism. In contrast with the scientific disciplines, the development of music theory over the last few hundred years has not been characterized by a growth in the empirical method. Rather, while composers have constantly experimented with new means of expression, music theorists have on the whole been system builders who sought to justify existing compositional practice or to prescribe new practice on numerological grounds. Further, when an external principle has been invoked as an explanatory device, most commonly such a principle was taken from physics. The concept of music as essentially the product of our processing mechanisms and therefore related to psychology has only rarely been entertained. There are several reasons why this rationalistic stance was adopted, most of which no longer apply. One reason was a paucity of knowledge concerning the nature of sound. It is understandable that the inability to characterize a physical stimulus should have inhibited the development of theories concerning how this stimulus is processed. A related reason was poor stimulus control, which made experimentation difficult. A third reason was the lack of appropriate mathematical techniques with which to study probabilistic phenomena. However, another reason, which is still with us today, lies in the peculiar nature of music itself. There are no external criteria for distinguishing between music and nonmusic, or between good music and bad music. Further, it is clear that how we perceive music depends at least to some extent on prior experience. Thus the relevance of psychological experimentation to music theory requires careful definition. In this chapter I first review major developments in music theory from an historical point of view. Following this I explore various issues that are currently being studied both by music theorists and by psychologists. Finally, I discuss the role of psychology in music theory.

To experience the “Phantom Words” illusion (Deutsch, 2003) the listener sits in front of two loudspeakers, with one to the left and the other to the right. A sequence is repeatedly presented consisting of two monosyllabic words, or one word composed of two syllables. The sequences coming from both loudspeakers are identical; however, they are offset in time so that when the first sound (word or syllable) is coming from the speaker on the right the second sound is coming from the speaker on the left; and vice versa. Listeners generally perceive different illusory words and phrases, and those appearing as from the right are often different from those appearing as from the left. Here, 20 righthanders and 20 non-righthanders (left-handers and mixed handers) listened to seven such sequences. For each handedness group, ten subjects were seated facing the loudspeakers and ten were seated facing the opposite direction. There was a highly significant tendency for righthanders to hear illusory words and phrases as coming from their right, regardless of their orientation relative to the loudspeakers. Non-righthanders also showed this tendency, but it was less pronounced. Implications for cerebral dominance are here discussed, and illusory sequences are presented as sound examples.

This paper reports a large-scale direct-test study of absolute pitch (AP) in students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Overall note-naming scores were very high, with high scores correlating positively with early onset of musical training. Students who had begun training at age ≤5 yr scored 83% correct not allowing for semitone errors and 90% correct allowing for semitone errors. Performance levels were higher for white key pitches than for black key pitches. This effect was greater for orchestral performers than for pianists, indicating that it cannot be attributed to early training on the piano. Rather, accuracy in identifying notes of different names (C, C#, D, etc.) correlated with their frequency of occurrence in a large sample of music taken from the Western tonal repertoire. There was also an effect of pitch range, so that performance on tones in the two-octave range beginning on Middle C was higher than on tones in the octave below Middle C. In addition, semitone errors tended to be on the sharp side. The evidence also ran counter to the hypothesis, previously advanced by others, that the note A plays a special role in pitch identification judgments.

It is normally obvious to listeners whether a human vocalization is intended to be heard as speech or song. However, the 2 signals are remarkably similar acoustically. A naturally occurring boundary case between speech and song has been discovered where a spoken phrase sounds as if it were sung when isolated and repeated. In the present study, an extensive search of audiobooks uncovered additional similar examples, which were contrasted with samples from the same corpus that do not sound like song, despite containing clear prosodic pitch contours. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that hearing these 2 closely matched stimuli is not associated with differences in response of early auditory areas. Rather, we find that a network of 8 regions, including the anterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) just anterior to Heschl’s gyrus and the right midposterior STG, respond more strongly to speech perceived as song than to mere speech. This network overlaps a number of areas previously associated with pitch extraction and song production, confirming that phrases originally intended to be heard as speech can, under certain circumstances, be heard as song. Our results suggest that song processing compared with speech processing makes increased demands on pitch processing and auditory--motor integration.

An illusion is explored in which a spoken phrase is perceptually transformed to sound like song rather than speech, simply by repeating it several times over. In experiment I, subjects listened to ten presentations of the phrase and judged how it sounded on a five-point scale with endpoints marked "exactly like speech" and "exactly like singing." The initial and final presentations of the phrase were identical. When the intervening presentations were also identical, judgments moved solidly from speech to song. However, this did not occur when the intervening phrases were transposed slightly or when the syllables were presented in jumbled orderings. In experiment II, the phrase was presented either once or ten times, and subjects repeated it back as they finally heard it. Following one presentation, the subjects repeated the phrase back as speech; however, following ten presentations they repeated it back as song. The pitch values of the subjects' renditions following ten presentations were closer to those of the original spoken phrase than were the pitch values following a single presentation. Furthermore, the renditions following ten presentations were even closer to a hypothesized representation in terms of a simple tonal melody than they were to the original spoken phrase.

Absolute pitch (AP)--the ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note--is a rare ability whose relevance to musical proficiency has so far been unclear. Sixty trained musicians--thirty who self-reported AP and thirty with equivalent age of onset and duration of musical training--were administered a test for AP and also a musical dictation test not requiring AP. Performance on both types of test were highly correlated (r=.81, p.001). When subjects were divided into three groups based on their performance on the AP test, highly significant differences between the groups emerged. Those who clearly possessed AP showed remarkably high performance on the musical dictation test, the scores of those without AP varied widely, and the performance of the intermediate group of borderline AP possessors fell between that of clear AP possessors and clear nonpossessors. The findings support the hypothesis that AP is associated with proficiency in performing other musical tasks, and run counter to the claim that it confers a disadvantage in the processing of relative pitch.

1a variant of which is shown in Fig. 1. Our visual system opts for a simple interpretation based on local relationships within the figure, rather than choosing a complex, yet correct, interpretation that takes the entire figure into account. We observe that each stair that is one step clockwise from its neighbor is also one step downward, and so we perceive the staircase as eternally descending. In principle, we could instead perceive the figure correctly as depicting four sets of stairs that are discontinuous, and viewed from a unique perspective—however such a percept never occurs. This paper explores an analogous set of auditory figures that are composed of patterns that appear to ascend or descend endlessly in pitch. Here also, our perceptual system opts for impossible but simple interpretations, based on our perception of local motion in a particular direction–either upward or downward. These sound patterns are not mere curiosities; rather they provide important information concerning general characteristics of pitch perception. Pitch as a two-dimensional attribute By analogy with real-world staircases, pitch is often viewed as extending along a one-dimensional continuum of pitch

Musical illusions created in the laboratory or concert hall provide insight on how the brain regroups auditory inputs.

Most believe that the ability to carry a tune is unevenly distributed in the general population. To test this claim, we asked occasional singers ( n = 62 ) to sing a well-known song in both the laboratory and in a natural setting (experiment 1). Sung performances were judged by peers for proficiency, analyzed for pitch and time accuracy with an acoustic-based method, and compared to professional singing. The peer ratings for the proficiency of occasional singers were normally distributed. Only a minority of the occasional singers made numerous pitch errors. The variance in singing proficiency was largely due to tempo differences. Occasional singers tended to sing at a faster tempo and with more pitch and time errors relative to professional singers. In experiment 2 15 nonmusicians from experiment 1 sang the same song at a slow tempo. In this condition, most of the occasional singers sang as accurately as the professional singers. Thus, singing appears to be a universal human trait. However, two of the occasional singers maintained a high rate of pitch errors at the slower tempo. This poor performance was not due to impaired pitch perception, thus suggesting the existence of a purely vocal form of tone deafness.

This article reports the first study of the glissando illusion, which was created and published as a sound demonstration by Deutsch [Deutsch, D. (1995). Musical illusions and paradoxes. La Jolla: Philomel Records (compact disc)]. To experience the illusion, each subject was seated in front of two stereophonically separated loudspeakers, with one to his left and the other to his right. A sound pattern was presented that consisted of a synthesized oboe tone of constant pitch, together with a sine wave whose pitch repeatedly glided up and down (the glissando). These two components alternated continuously between the loudspeakers such that when the oboe tone emanated from the loudspeaker on the left, the glissando emanated from the loudspeaker on the right; and vice versa. The oboe tone was perceived correctly as switching between loudspeakers; however, the segments of the glissando appeared to be joined together seamlessly, such that a single, continuous tone was heard, which appeared to be moving slowly around in space in accordance with its pitch motion. Right-handers (n = 22) tended strongly to hear the glissando move between left and right, and also between low and high in space, as its pitch moved between low and high. More specifically, it was frequently heard as tracing an elliptical path aligned diagonally between a position low and to the left when its pitch was lowest, and high and to the right when its pitch was highest. Non-right-handers (n = 42) perceived the illusion in statistically different ways. The handedness correlates and other implications of the glissando illusion are discussed. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Auditory and visual digit span tests were administered to a group of absolute pitch (AP) possessors, and a group of AP nonpossessors matched for age, and for age of onset and duration of musical training. All subjects were speakers of English. The AP possessors substantially and significantly outperformed the nonpossessors on the auditory test, while the two groups did not differ significantly on the visual test. It is conjectured that a large auditory memory span, including memory for speech sounds, facilitates the development of associations between pitches and their verbal labels early in life, so promoting the acquisition of AP.

Chambers, Mattingley, and Moss (2004) present a review of research and theory concerning the octave illusion, a phenomenon that was originally reported by Deutsch (1974). The authors argue against the two-channel model proposed by Deutsch (1975a) to explain the illusory percept that was most commonly obtained and propose, instead, that the illusion results from binaural fusion and diplacusis. This article replies to the arguments raised by Chambers et al. (2004) and argues that the octave illusion and the two-channel model proposed to explain it are in accordance with growing evidence for what-where dissociations in the auditory system and for illusory conjunctions in hearing.

The octave illusion (D. Deutsch, 1974) occurs when 2 tones separated by an octave are alternated repeatedly, such that when the right ear receives the high tone, the left ear receives the low tone, and vice versa. Most subjects in the original study reported hearing a single tone that alternated from ear to ear, whose pitch also alternated from octave to octave, and D. Deutsch (1975a) proposed an explanation in terms of separate what and where auditory pathways. C. D. Chambers, J. B. Mattingley, and S. A. Moss (2002) argued that the perceived pitch difference generally corresponds more to a semitone and proposed an alternative explanation in terms of diplacusis. This article argues that Chambers et al. used problematic procedures and reports a new experiment on the octave illusion. The findings confirm that an octave difference is generally perceived, and they agree with the model of Deutsch (1975a) but are at variance with the diplacusis hypothesis. The octave illusion, which was originally described by Deutsch (1974), is a paradoxical auditory phenomenon that is characterized by large individual differences in perception. The pattern that was first used to create this illusion consisted of two tones that were spaced an octave apart and that were repeatedly presented in alternation. The identical sequence was presented via headphones to both ears simultaneously; however, when the right ear received the high tone, the left ear received the low tone, and vice versa. This pattern gave rise to a number of different illusory percepts, the most common one (termed octave) being of a single tone that alternated from ear to ear, whose pitch also alternated from one octave to the other in synchrony with the localization shift. Deutsch (1975a) proposed a model to account for the octave percept, based on a hypothesized separation between what and where decision mechanisms in the auditory system. The model, hereafter referred to as the two-channel model,assumes that (a) to produce the perceived pitches, the frequencies arriving at one ear are perceived, while those arriving at the other ear are suppressed from conscious perception and that (b) each perceived tone is localized at the ear receiving the higher frequency signal, regardless of whether a pitch corresponding to the higher or lower frequency is in fact perceived. The model therefore assumes that the octave illusion results from illusory conjunctions of pitch and location values. Chambers, Mattingley, and Moss (2002) argued from a series of experiments that the phenomenology of the octave illusion differs from that originally described by Deutsch (1974). More specifically, they asserted that, on listening to the octave illusion, the perceived difference between the alternating tones generally corresponds more to a semitone than to an octave. On this basis, the authors hypothesized that the tones at the two ears fuse harmonically to produce a pitch that corresponds to the low tone, 1 and that the slight pitch difference between the alternating tones that is perceived is the result of diplacusis. 2 They also reported that some of their subjects lateralized each tone to the ear receiving the higher frequency and that some lateralized each tone to the ear receiving the lower frequency, though they did not offer an explanation for the lateralization patterns they obtained. In this article, I first review early findings concerning the phenomenology of the octave illusion and describe the twochannel model that was proposed to explain the octave percept. There follows a critique of the study by Chambers et al. (2002), which questions the validity of their observations. Because their hypothesis could hold only if these observations were valid, this hypothesis is also challenged. Finally, a new experiment is reported in which the phenomenology of the octave illusion is documented more explicitly than in previous studies. The findings from this new experiment confirm that an octave difference between the alternating tones is generally perceived, and they are in accordance with the two-channel model but cannot be explained on the diplacusis hypothesis.

Absolute pitch is generally considered to reflect a rare musical endowment; however, its characteristics are puzzling and its genesis is unclear. We describe two experiments in which native speakers of tone languages—Mandarin and Vietnamese—were found to display a remarkably precise and stable form of absolute pitch in enunciating words. We further describe a third experiment in which speakers of English displayed less stability on an analogous task. Based on these findings, and considering the related literatures on critical periods in speech development, and the neurological underpinnings of lexical tone, we propose a framework for the genesis of absolute pitch. The framework assumes that absolute pitch originally evolved as a feature of speech, analogous to other features such as vowel quality, and that speakers of tone language naturally acquire this feature during the critical period for speech acquisition. We further propose that the acquisition of absolute pitch by rare individuals who speak an intonation language may be associated with a critical period of unusually long duration, so that it encompasses the age at which the child can take music lessons. We conclude that the potential to acquire absolute pitch is universally present at birth, and that it can be realized by enabling the infant to associate pitches with verbal labels during the critical period for speech acquisition.

Absolute pitch—the ability to name or produce a note of particular pitch in the absence of a reference note—is generally considered to be extremely rare. However, it has been found that native speakers of two different tone languages—Mandarin and Vietnamese—display a remarkably precise form of absolute pitch in enunciating words. Given these findings, it is proposed that absolute pitch may have evolved as a feature of speech, analogous to other features such as vowel quality. It is also conjectured that tone–language speakers generally acquire this feature during the 1st year of life, in the critical period when infants acquire other features of their native language. For speakers of nontone languages, the acquisition of absolute pitch by rare individuals may be associated with a critical period of unusually long duration, so that it extends to the age at which the child can begin taking music lessons. According to this line of reasoning, the potential for acquiring absolute pitch is universal at birth, and can be realized by giving the infant the opportunity to associate pitches with verbal labels during the 1st year or so of life.

Absolute pitch (AP) is the rare ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note. Here we show that AP possessors sometimes name notes incorrectly in accordance with an auditory illusion. AP possessors were presented with a test tone, which was followed by six intervening tones, and then by a second test tone. The test tones were either identical in pitch or they differed by a semitone. All tones were sine waves.The AP possessors were asked to ignore the intervening tones, and to name both the first and the second test tones after hearing the full sequence. In one condition in which the test tones differed, a tone that was identical in pitch to the second test tone was inserted in the intervening sequence. For example, if the first test tone was D and the second test tone was D#, the note D# was inserted in the intervening sequence. In this condition, the AP possessors showed a significant tendency to misname the first test tone as having the same pitch as the second test tone. This is th...

Pasek, K. (1996). Infants' sensitivity to word boundaries in fluent speech. Journal of Child Language, 23, 1-30. Newsome, M., & Jusczyk, PW. (1995). Do infants use stress as a cue for segmenting fluent speech? In D. MacLaughlin & S. McEwen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 19th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (Vol. 2, pp. 415^26). Somerville, MA: Casca dilla Press. Saffran, J.R., Aslin, R.N., & Newport, E.L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Sci ence, 274, 1926-1928. Suomi, K. (1993). An outline of a developmental model of adult phonological organization and behavior. Journal of Phonetics, 21, 29-60. Woodward, J.Z., & Aslin, R.N. (1990, April). Seg mentation cues in maternal speech to infants. Pa per presented at the biennial meeting of the International Conference on Infant Studies, Montreal, Quebec.