Dissertation (PhD) Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Alice-Ann Darrow, Florida State University, College of Music. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed 7-9-07). Document formatted into pages; contains 98 pages. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 1997. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-70). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ27332.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains 12, 107 p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: David Huron, School of Music. Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-107).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 83 p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Caroline Palmer, Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-83).

The purpose of this study was to investigate infants' preferences and long-term memory for two contrasting complex pieces of music, that is, Prelude and Forlane from Le Tombeau de Couperin by Maurice Ravel (1875--1937). Seventy 8.5-month-old infants were randomly assigned to one of four experiments conducted on the Headturn Preference Procedure. The first experiment examined infants' preferences for Prelude and Forlane in piano timbre. The second experiment assessed infants' preferences for Prelude and Forlane in orchestra timbre. Infants' preferences for the Forlane in piano and orchestra timbres were investigated in the third experiment. The last experiment aimed at infants' long-term memory for complex music. Thirty infants were exposed to either the Prelude or the Forlane three times a day for ten consecutive days. Two weeks following the exposure, infants were tested on the HPP. It was predicted that these infants would prefer to listen to the familiar piece from the exposure over the unfamiliar one. Results suggested that 8.5-month-olds could tell apart two complex pieces of music in orchestra timbre and could discriminate between the piano and the orchestra timbres. Contrary to the belief that infants are ill equipped to process complex music, this study found that infants could encode and remember complex pieces of music for at least two weeks. / Because infants rely on their caretakers to provide musical experiences for them, maternal beliefs and uses of music were also investigated. Mothers of participating infants were interviewed on musical background, listening preferences and musical behaviors and beliefs with their infants. The analysis of interview data yielded the following main results: (1) Singing was the primary musical activity of mothers and babies; (2) Maternal occupation and previous musical experiences affected their musical behaviors with their babies; (3) Most mothers held the belief that there is appropriate music for babies to listen to although there was no consensus as to what is appropriate music. Such beliefs reflect a conflict between maternal beliefs regarding infants' music cognition and the actual music-related perceptual and cognitive abilities of infants. Attempting to attenuate this conflict, suggestions for music educators, parents and researchers were proposed.

Past studies of object recognition in vision and language have shown that (1) identification of the larger structure of an object is possible even if its component units are ambiguous or missing, and (2) contexts often influence the perception of the component units. The present study asked whether a similar case could be found in audition, investigating (1) whether melody recognition would be possible with uncertain pitch cues, and (2) whether adding contextual information would enhance pitch perception. Sixteen musically trained listeners attempted to identify, on a piano keyboard, pitches of tones in three different context conditions: (1) single tones, (2) pairs of tones, and (3) familiar melodies. The pitch cues were weakened using bandpass filtered noises of varying bandwidths. With increasing bandwidth, listeners were less able to identify the pitches of the tones. However, they were able to name the melodies despite their inability to identify the individual notes. There was no effect of context; whether or not listeners heard single tones, pairs of tones, or melodies did not influence their pitch identification of the tones. Several possible explanations were discussed regarding types of information that listeners had access to, since they could not have relied on detailed features of the melodies.

This thesis uses music as a means of investigating both typical and atypical perception of emotion and attribution of social intent. The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate this perception and attribution in indviduals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and compare this with typical adults and children. Chapter 1 comprises a literature review of music and emotion, and of music cognition in individuals with ASD. The first manuscript (Chapter 2) describes the development of a new method for investigating perception of emotion from musical performance. Using this method, we found that typical adults can reliably rate the emotional content of musical performances which vary in expressive parameters. In the second manuscript (Chapter 3), we used this method to examine the ability of adolescents with ASD to rate the emotional content of musical performance. We compared the group with ASD to a group of typically developing adolescents as well as a group of individuals with Williams syndrome (WS). The results of this study showed that adolescents with ASD are impaired in this kind of emotional recognition relative to both comparison groups. Emotional recognition is an important aspect of everyday social interactions, both in understanding and predicting others' actions. Thus, in the third manuscript (Chapter 4), we examined the effect of musical soundtracks on attribution of social action and intent in ASD by adding music to an established visual task. [...] / Dans cette these, la musique est utili see pour investiguer la perceptiontypique et atypique des emotions ainsi que l' attribution d'intentions sociales.L' objectif premier est d' evaluer la perception des emotions et des intentionssociales chez des individus presentant un trouble du spectre autistique (TSA) enles comparant a des .adultes et des enfants dont le developpement est typique. Lepremier chapitre est consacre a une revue de la litterature portant sur la musiqueet les emotions ainsi que sur la cognition de la musique chez des individuspresentant un TSA. Le premier manuscrit (chapitre 2) porte sur le developpement d'une nouvelle methode permettant d'evaluer la perception desemotions associees a des performances musicales. [...]

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Psychology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Sc.). / Written for the Dept. of Psychology. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/07/28). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.M.) Florida State University, 2008. / Advisor: Jayne Standley, Florida State University College of Music. Title and description form dissertation home page (viewed 4-6-2009). Document formatted into pages; contains 52 pages.