Abstract
We investigated the effects of selective attention and musical training on the processing of harmonic expectations. In Experiment 1, participants with and without musical training were required to respond to the contour of melodies as they were presented with chord progressions that were highly expected, slightly unexpected, or extremely unexpected. Reaction time and accuracy results showed that when attention was focused on the melody, musically trained participants were still sensitive to different harmonic expectations, whereas participants with no musical training were undifferentiated across expectation conditions. In Experiment 2, participants were required to listen holistically to the entire chord progression and to rate their preference for each chord progression. Results from preference ratings showed that all the participants, with or without musical training, were sensitive to manipulations of harmonic expectations. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that changing the speed of presentation of chord progressions did not affect the pattern of results. The four experiments together highlight the importance of attentional focus in musical training, especially as it relates to the processing of harmonic expectations.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Besson, M., &Faïta, F. (1995). An event-related potential (ERP) study of musical expectancy: Comparison of musicians with nonmusicians.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,21, 1278–1296.
Bharucha, J. J., &Stoeckig, K. (1986). Reaction time and musical expectancy: Priming of chords.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,12, 403–410.
Bigand, E., Madurell, F., Tillmann, B., &Pineau, M. (1999). Effect of global structure and temporal organization on chord processing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,25, 184–197.
Bigand, E., McAdams, S., &Forêt, S. (2000). Divided attention in music.International Journal of Psychology.35, 270–278.
Bigand, E., Tillmann, B., Poulin, B., D’Adamo, D. A., &Madurell, F. (1997). The effect of harmonic context on phoneme monitoring in vocal music.Cognition,81, B11-B20.
Clarke, E. F. (1999). Rhythm and timing in music. In D. Deutsch (Ed.),The psychology of music (pp. 473–500). San Diego: Academic Press.
Gaser, C., &Schlaug, G. (2003). Brain structures differ between musicians and non-musicians.Journal of Neuroscience,23, 9240–9245.
Jones, M. R. (2001). Temporal expectancies, capture, and timing in auditory sequences. In C. L. Folk & B. S. Gibson (Eds.),Attraction, distraction and action: Multiple perspectives on attentional capture (pp. 191–229). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Jones, M. R., &Boltz, M. (1989). Dynamic attending and responses to time.Psychological Review,96, 459–491.
Justus, T. C., &Bharucha, J. J. (2001). Modularity in musical processing: The automaticity of harmonic priming.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,27, 1000–1011.
Koelsch, S., Gunter, T. [C.], Friederici, A. D., &Schröger, E. (2000). Brain indices of music processing: “Nonmusicians” are musical.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,12, 520–541.
Koelsch, S., Schmidt, B.-H., &Kansok, J. (2002). Effects of musical expertise on the early right anterior negativity: An event-related brain potential study.Psychophysiology,39, 657–663.
Koelsch, S., Schröger, E., &Gunter, T. C. (2002). Music matters: Preattentive musicality of the human brain.Psychophysiology,39, 1–11.
Krumhansl, C. L. (1990).Cognitive foundations of musical pitch. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Krumhansl, C. L., &Kessler, E. J. (1982). Tracing the dynamic changes in perceived tonal organization in a spatial representation of musical keys.Psychological Review,89, 334–368.
Loui, P., Grent-’t-Jong, T., Torpey, D., &Woldorff, M. G. (2005). Effects of attention on the neural processing of harmonic syntax in Western music.Cognitive Brain Research,25, 678–687.
Meyer, L. (1956).Emotion and meaning in music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Piston, W., DeVoto, M., &Jannery, A. (1987).Harmony (5th ed.). New York: Norton.
Poulin-Charronnat, B., Bigand, E., Madurell, F., &Peereman, R. (2005). Musical structure modulates semantic priming in vocal music.Cognition,94, B67-B78.
Schmuckler, M. A., &Boltz, M. G. (1994). Harmonic and rhythmic influences on musical expectancy.Perception & Psychophysics,56, 313–325.
Steinbeis, N., Koelsch, S., &Sloboda, J. A. (2006). The role of harmonic expectancy violations in musical emotions: Evidence from subjective, physiological, and neural responses.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,18, 1380–1393.
Tekman, H. G., &Bharucha, J. J. (1992). Time course of chord priming.Perception & Psychophysics,51, 33–39.
Tillmann, B., &Bharucha, J. J. (2002). Effect of harmonic relatedness on the detection of temporal asynchronies.Perception & Psychophysics, 64, 640–649.
Tillmann, B., Bigand, E., Escoffier, N., &Lalitte, P. (2006). The influence of musical relatedness on timbre discrimination.European Journal of Cognitive Psychology,18, 343–358.
Zicarelli, D. (1998). An extensible real-time signal processing environment for Max. InProceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, 1998 (pp. 463–466). San Francisco: ICMA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by a grant from the Academic Senate of the University of California at Berkeley to D.W.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Loui, P., Wessel, D. Harmonic expectation and affect in Western music: Effects of attention and training. Perception & Psychophysics 69, 1084–1092 (2007). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193946
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193946