This project investigated the statistical learning of musical expectancy. As a secondary goal, the effects of the perceptual properties of tone set familiarity (Western vs. Bohlen-Pierce) and textural complexity (melody vs. harmony) on the robustness of that learning process were assessed. A series of five experiments was conducted, varying in terms of these perceptual properties, the grammatical structure used to generate musical sequences, and the methods used to measure musical expectancy. Results indicated that expectancies can indeed be developed following statistical learning, particularly for materials composed from familiar tone sets. Moreover, some expectancy effects were observed in the absence of the ability to successfully discriminate between grammatical and ungrammatical items. The effect of these results on our current understanding of expectancy formation is discussed, as is the appropriateness of the behavioural methods used in this research.

Two age groups of infants were tested for their ability to learn an AAB or ABA repetition generalization in sequences of musical chords. The 4-month-olds, but not the 7.5-month-olds, successfully learned the generalization. Another group of 7.5-month-old infants successfully learned a generalization across melodies that all ended on a particular scale degree, even though the key of the melodies was varied. A survey of a musical corpus of children's songs reveals that AAB and ABA patterns do not occur more frequently than chance, while phrases frequently end on particular scale degrees. Together, these findings suggest that infants learn to constrain the set of generalizations they consider in order to favor those that rely upon features of the input that have proved reliable in their previous experience, specifically experience with a particular input domain. This raises the possibility that experience may play a significant role in parsing infants' environments into domains.

This dissertation presents an instrumentalist’s perspective on cognition and meta-cognition in music performance. The goal of the study is to identify and apply methods of inquiry that are phenomenologically resonant with instrumental practice. The first chapter, situating the study in the context of the writer’s musical training, examines ways of studying and representing performance knowledge. The second chapter presents a case study of the preparation of Tōru Takemitsu’s Masque for Two Flutes (1959-1960). Using grounded theory methodology, this chapter investigates the role of gesture in the negotiation of musical understanding. Chapters 3 through 5 draw on Herbert H. Clark’s joint activity theory of language use to conceptualize music-making, taking into account context, process, and other domains of musical activity. Finally, Chapter 6, in addition to re-defining "virtuosity" for the 21st century instrumentalist, presents a set of philosophical considerations for cognitive studies in music performance.

This project investigated the statistical learning of musical expectancy. As a secondary goal, the effects of the perceptual properties of tone set familiarity (Western vs. Bohlen-Pierce) and textural complexity (melody vs. harmony) on the robustness of that learning process were assessed. A series of five experiments was conducted, varying in terms of these perceptual properties, the grammatical structure used to generate musical sequences, and the methods used to measure musical expectancy. Results indicated that expectancies can indeed be developed following statistical learning, particularly for materials composed from familiar tone sets. Moreover, some expectancy effects were observed in the absence of the ability to successfully discriminate between grammatical and ungrammatical items. The effect of these results on our current understanding of expectancy formation is discussed, as is the appropriateness of the behavioural methods used in this research.

This dissertation presents an instrumentalist’s perspective on cognition and meta-cognition in music performance. The goal of the study is to identify and apply methods of inquiry that are phenomenologically resonant with instrumental practice. The first chapter, situating the study in the context of the writer’s musical training, examines ways of studying and representing performance knowledge. The second chapter presents a case study of the preparation of Tōru Takemitsu’s Masque for Two Flutes (1959-1960). Using grounded theory methodology, this chapter investigates the role of gesture in the negotiation of musical understanding. Chapters 3 through 5 draw on Herbert H. Clark’s joint activity theory of language use to conceptualize music-making, taking into account context, process, and other domains of musical activity. Finally, Chapter 6, in addition to re-defining "virtuosity" for the 21st century instrumentalist, presents a set of philosophical considerations for cognitive studies in music performance.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1993. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This dissertation presents an instrumentalist’s perspective on cognition and meta-cognition in music performance. The goal of the study is to identify and apply methods of inquiry that are phenomenologically resonant with instrumental practice. The first chapter, situating the study in the context of the writer’s musical training, examines ways of studying and representing performance knowledge. The second chapter presents a case study of the preparation of Tōru Takemitsu’s Masque for Two Flutes (1959-1960). Using grounded theory methodology, this chapter investigates the role of gesture in the negotiation of musical understanding. Chapters 3 through 5 draw on Herbert H. Clark’s joint activity theory of language use to conceptualize music-making, taking into account context, process, and other domains of musical activity. Finally, Chapter 6, in addition to re-defining "virtuosity" for the 21st century instrumentalist, presents a set of philosophical considerations for cognitive studies in music performance. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate

This thesis is composed of two independent manuscripts for publication. The first (Chapter 2) “More Detectable, Less Annoying. The Role of Temporal Variation in Envelope and Spectral Content on Detection and Annoyance” will be submitted to Psychological Science. This manuscript explores how detection and annoyance of sound are affected by temporal variation in two acoustic parameters; amplitude envelope and spectral content. The second (Chapter 3) “Improving Detectability of Auditory Interfaces Through Temporal Variation in Envelope” will be submitted to Human Factors. Here I build off of the previous manuscript by investigating tone detection in a split attention task more pertinent to the normative use of auditory interfaces. The author of this thesis is the primary author of both papers. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Previous studies of musical creativity lacked strong foundations in music theory and music analysis. The goal of the current project was to merge the study of music perception and cognition with the study of expertise-based musical creativity. Three hypotheses about the nature of creativity were tested. According to the productive-thinking hypothesis, creativity represents a complete break from past knowledge. According to the reproductive-thinking hypothesis, creators develop a core collection of kernel ideas early in their careers and continually recombine those ideas in novel ways. According to what can be called the field hypothesis, creativity involves more than just the individual creator; creativity represents an interaction between the individual creator, the domain in which the creator works, and the field, or collection of institutions that evaluate creative products. In order to evaluate each hypothesis, the musical components of a sample of songs by two eminent 20th century American songwriters, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, were analyzed. Five separate analyses were constructed to examine changes in the psychologically salient musical components of Berlin's and Porter's songs over time. In addition, comparisons between hit songs and non-hit songs were also drawn to investigate whether the composers learned from their cumulative songwriting experiences. Several developmental trends were found in the careers of both composers; however, there were few differences between hit songs and non-hit songs on all measures. The careers of both composers contain evidence of productive and reproductive creativity. Implications of the results and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Psychology

This study is an exploration of the integration in composition of theoretical and psychoacoustic properties of pitch and duration; its aims are essentially practical in showing how cognitive research can inform composition, but it also addresses more broadly the value and role cognition can have in the current musical compositional climate. Various contexts for this exploration are discussed: the mediating role analysis has within theory and composition; constraints imposed by aesthetic positions and music theory/pedagogy templates; the role of cognitive psychology in connecting music templates and listening experiences; and the ultimately mythopoetic (Cook, 1992) rather than scientific nature of any such theory/psychology integration. Using Huovinen’s “pitch constellation” approach and Lerdahl’s theory of tonal pitch space, a hierarchical pitch-space is set up for the string piece ed erra l’armonia, developing from pc set 5-22 a non-standard octatonic scale (pc set 8-27) as the basic pitch collection of the piece. Similarly, using the works of Fraisse, Hasty and London, a hierarchical rhythm-space is set up for the orchestral piece Pneuma developing, from the indifference interval in duration, the temporal and metric envelops and the duple and triple subdivisions of the tactus, a three layered metrical structure as the generative rhythmic template of the piece. This is contextualised against the problematic notion of metre in modern art-music. General characteristic of both spaces are discussed: redundancy according to information theory, hierarchy in relation to cognitive opaqueness, salience and association; and elaborational and permutational processes. It is argued that composition needs to bridge, in practice, the gap between music theory and psychology of music, looking beyond their often absolutist positions; that cognitive constrains in music should be seen as opportunities to work compositionally along the mind’s cognitive grains in order to maximise structural and expressive communication; and that at a time of a ‘deregulated’ musical language it is necessary to re-develop cognitive heuristics to secure the connection between compositional choices and listening experiences. Three principles are given as guidelines for the alignment of theoretical and cognitive issues in composition. It is proposed that cognitive analysis should be developed as an independent discipline as well as a compositional tool, and that the connections style/cognition should be looked at more closely to gain a more unified perspective on diverse (and divisive) stylistic musical camps.