Mental imagery is a common theme in research that clarifies how musical thought relates to musical performance. Unfortunately, minimal information exists regarding mental imagery and singers. The purpose of this study was to probe the role, if any, mental imagery plays in the conceptualization of pitch and vowel. By interviewing singers at differing levels of expertise, basic information was obtained about the mental processes used by singers. Through evaluations of the singers' mental processes, it was concluded that 95% of the singers in the study employed mental imagery. All singers described using kinesthetic imagery, while the majority implemented sensory and auditory imagery. Viso-spatial imagery was implemented among the more experienced singers. The majority of singers also reported: imaging pitch and vowel interactively; imaging from an internal perspective; and utilizing mental rehearsal. Less than half of the singers described using methods other than mental imagery to conceptualize pitch and vowel.

The purpose of this study was to investigate aspects of pitch perception of auditors when presented with musical tones whose frequencies were modulated. Research problems were: estimation of the effect of musical training upon pitch perception; estimation of the effect of stimuli of differing tonal qualities and frequency ranges upon perception; and estimation of the effect of solo and ensemble performances upon pitch perception. Subjects for the study were thirty musicians and thirty nonmusicians. Subjects were students at North Texas State University and Paris Junior College who had volunteered for the study. A test containing thirty-six items was developed which required subjects to match a tone created by a sawtooth wave generator to a simultaneously presented musical tone performed with vibrato. Each subject was tested individually, and allowed three attempts to match each test item. After the third playing of each item, a reading was taken of the frequency selected by the subject, Using the split half method, reliability for the test was found to be .86 for nonmusicians and .88 for musicians. ANOVA evaluation of responses of subjects indicated that there was a significant difference.in the location of pitch among musicians and nonmusicians, with musicians locating the pitch somewhat higher in the frequency spectrum than nonmusicians. Neither group located the pitch of modulated musical tones at the geometric mean of the modulation. Differences located in responses of the groups were consistant with regard to stimuli of varying frequency levels and timbres, and were unaffected by either solo or ensemble performance of the stimulus. Subsidiary findings indicated that among musicians no significant differences in pitch perception may be traced to the major performing instrument of the subject; differences in these subgroups and nonmusicians were consistant with the findings comparing musicians as "a whole and nonmusicians. Suggestions were made concerning application of the findings to musical training and concerning possibilities for further investigation in perception of pitch.

Although many researchers investigate the senses separately, most people have a coherent conscious experience of the world that is not divided into separate perceptions of vision, hearing, or other senses. The brain integrates the information received from our senses into a unified representation of the world around us. Previous research has demonstrated that what people perceive with one sense can influence their perception of stimuli with the other senses (Roffler & Butler, 1968; Marks, 2000). The current set of studies was designed to illuminate the associations between musical pitch and visuospatial motion. The first two experiments with infants revealed that 11-month-old infants are sensitive to associations between ascending and descending musical pitch and the direction of an object’s motion. Additionally, two more experiments with infants revealed that infants of the same age do not show the associations of rightward motion with ascending pitch and leftward motion with descending pitch that adults have demonstrated in some experiments (Eitan & Granot, 2006). The fifth experiment tested the influence of ascending and descending musical stimuli on making a visuospatial motion to a target location. Adult subjects demonstrated faster reaction times when using a trackball to move a cursor to a target location on a computer screen when the direction of the target was congruent with the musical stimulus to which they were listening. The effect was stronger for vertical target locations than for horizontal target locations. The results of these studies indicate that both infants and adults are sensitive to associations between musical pitch and visuospatial motion in the vertical plane, and adults may also make associations between musical pitch and visuospatial motion in the horizontal plane. / text

L’objectif de ce travail était d’examiner la spécificité fonctionnelle du traitement et des représentations des hauteurs musicales. À cette fin, ce traitement a été comparé à celui des phonèmes de la parole, d’une part, et aux associations spatiales évoquées par des séquences ordonnées, d’autre part. Nos quatre études avaient pour point commun d’adapter à un nouvel objet de recherche des méthodes bien établies en psychologie cognitive. Ainsi, nous avons exploité la tâche de classification accélérée (Etude 1) de Garner (1974), l’analyse des conjonctions illusoires en mémoire (Etude 2), l’additivité de la composante mismatch negativity (MMN) des potentiels évoqués (Etude 3) et l’observation d’associations spatiales de codes de réponse (Etude 4). Les trois premières études, menées chez des participants non-musiciens, portaient sur la spécificité de traitement des hauteurs par rapport à celui des phonèmes au sein de stimuli chantés. Les deux premières études ont mis en évidence un effet surprenant de la nature des phonèmes sur leurs interactions avec le traitement des mélodies : les voyelles apparaissaient plus intégrées à la mélodie que les consonnes. Ceci était vrai à la fois lors du traitement en temps réel de non-mots chantés (Etude 1) et au niveau des traces en mémoire de ces mêmes non-mots (Etude 2, utilisant une tâche de reconnaissance à choix forcé permettant la mise en évidence de conjonctions illusoires). Cette dissociation entre voyelles et consonnes quant à leur intégration avec les traitements mélodiques ne semblait pas causée par des caractéristiques acoustico-phonétiques telles que la sonorité. Les résultats de la troisième étude indiquaient que les MMNs en réponse à des déviations de hauteur et de voyelle n’étaient pas additives et que leur distribution topographique ne différait pas selon le type de déviation. Ceci suggère que, même au niveau pré-attentionnel, le traitement des voyelles n’est pas indépendant de celui des hauteurs. Dans la quatrième étude, nous avons comparé le traitement des hauteurs musicales à un autre domaine : la cognition spatiale. Nous avons ainsi montré que les non-musiciens comme les musiciens associent les notes graves à la partie inférieure et les notes aiguës à la partie supérieure de l’espace. Les deux groupes liaient aussi les notes graves au côté gauche et les notes aiguës au côté droit, mais ce lien n’était automatique que chez les musiciens. Enfin, des stimuli musicaux plus complexes (intervalles mélodiques) n’évoquaient ces associations spatiales que chez les musiciens et ce, uniquement sur le plan horizontal. Ces recherches contribuent de plusieurs manières à la compréhension de la cognition musicale. Premièrement, nous avons montré que les consonnes et les voyelles diffèrent dans leurs interactions avec la musique, une idée à mettre en perspective avec les rôles différents de ces phonèmes dans l’évolution du langage. Ensuite, les travaux sur les représentations spatiales des hauteurs musicales ouvrent la voie à un courant de recherche qui aidera à dévoiler les liens potentiels entre habiletés musicales et spatiales. / The purpose of this work was to examine the functional specificity of musical pitch processing and representation. To this aim, we compared musical pitch processing to (1) the phonological processing of speech and (2) the spatial associations evoked by ordered sequences. The four studies described here all use classical methods of cognitive psychology, which have been adapted to our research question. We have employed Garner’s (1974) speeded classification task (Study 1), the analysis of illusory conjunctions in memory (Study 2), the additivity of the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of event-related potentials (Study 3), as well as the observation of spatial associations of response codes (Study 4). The three first studies examined, in non-musician participants, the specificity of pitch processing compared to phoneme processing in songs. Studies 1 and 2 revealed a surprising effect of phoneme category on their interactions with melodic processing: vowels were more integrated with melody than were consonants. This was true for both on-line processing of sung nonwords (Study 1) and for the memory traces of these nonwords (Study 2, using a forced-choice recognition task allowing the occurrence of illusory conjunctions). The difference between vowels and consonants was not due to acoustic-phonetic properties such as phoneme sonority. The results of the third study showed that the MMN in response to pitch and to vowel deviations was not additive and that its brain topography did not differ as a function of the kind of deviation. This suggests that vowel processing is not independent from pitch processing, even at the pre-attentive level. In the fourth study, we compared pitch processing to another domain: spatial cognition. We showed that both musicians and non-musicians map pitch onto space, in that they associate low-pitched tones to the lower spatial field and high-pitched tones to the higher spatial field. Both groups of participants also associated low pitched-tones with the left and high-pitched tones with the right, but this association was automatic only in musicians. Finally, more complex musical stimuli such as melodic intervals evoked these spatial associations in the horizontal plane only in musicians. This work contributes to the understanding of music cognition in several ways. First, we have shown that consonants and vowels differ in their interactions with music, an idea related to the contrasting roles of these phonemes in language evolution. Second, the work on the spatial representation of pitch opens the path to research that will help uncover the potential links between musical and spatial abilities.

The purpose of this study is to develop a fourteen-week program for teaching beginning music reading through rhythmic and pitch notation to pre-school children in piano classes. The historical background for the study discusses man's learning abilities in the group process in music education with the particular reference to class piano and its development and publications by leading authorities concerning class piano and rhythmic training in the classroom. The second chapter contains analyses and summaries of five selected texts pertinent to the study. The findings of research of the five selected texts serve as the groundwork for the development of the program which is contained in the third chapter.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

The purpose of the study was to compare two instructional methodologies designed to improve the intonation accuracy of seventh grade violin and viola instrumentalists. The collection of data was in regard to (1) instructional methodology: aural and aural/visual, (2) performance tasks: A, B, and C; (3) individual pitches (seven from each of the music tasks), and (4) differences between instrument groups: violin and viola. Sixty-eight seventh grade string students from three string classes of two middle schools were randomly assigned to two experimental groups: (a) aural and (b) aural/visual. The instructional period was implemented daily in ten-minute sessions during twenty days by the orchestra instructors of each school. A pretest-posttest format was used to determine if there were any changes in the subjects' intonation accuracy from prior to after the instructional phase was implemented, and if these changes could be attributed to any of the methodologies. The testing material used on both testing sessions included three performance tasks composed of seven notes each. Subjects were recorded on both testing occasions. The data were the scores of absolute pitch deviation, measured in cents from equal temperament, from the pre- and postest; these were treated with analysis of variance. The ANOVA on the posttest scores indicated a non-significant difference between the instructional methodologies in their effectiveness to improve the subjects' ability to play in tune.

L’objectif de ce travail était d’examiner la spécificité fonctionnelle du traitement et des représentations des hauteurs musicales. À cette fin, ce traitement a été comparé à celui des phonèmes de la parole, d’une part, et aux associations spatiales évoquées par des séquences ordonnées, d’autre part. Nos quatre études avaient pour point commun d’adapter à un nouvel objet de recherche des méthodes bien établies en psychologie cognitive. Ainsi, nous avons exploité la tâche de classification accélérée (Etude 1) de Garner (1974), l’analyse des conjonctions illusoires en mémoire (Etude 2), l’additivité de la composante mismatch negativity (MMN) des potentiels évoqués (Etude 3) et l’observation d’associations spatiales de codes de réponse (Etude 4).<p>Les trois premières études, menées chez des participants non-musiciens, portaient sur la spécificité de traitement des hauteurs par rapport à celui des phonèmes au sein de stimuli chantés. Les deux premières études ont mis en évidence un effet surprenant de la nature des phonèmes sur leurs interactions avec le traitement des mélodies :les voyelles apparaissaient plus intégrées à la mélodie que les consonnes. Ceci était vrai à la fois lors du traitement en temps réel de non-mots chantés (Etude 1) et au niveau des traces en mémoire de ces mêmes non-mots (Etude 2, utilisant une tâche de reconnaissance à choix forcé permettant la mise en évidence de conjonctions illusoires). Cette dissociation entre voyelles et consonnes quant à leur intégration avec les traitements mélodiques ne semblait pas causée par des caractéristiques acoustico-phonétiques telles que la sonorité. Les résultats de la troisième étude indiquaient que les MMNs en réponse à des déviations de hauteur et de voyelle n’étaient pas additives et que leur distribution topographique ne différait pas selon le type de déviation. Ceci suggère que, même au niveau pré-attentionnel, le traitement des voyelles n’est pas indépendant de celui des hauteurs. <p>Dans la quatrième étude, nous avons comparé le traitement des hauteurs musicales à un autre domaine :la cognition spatiale. Nous avons ainsi montré que les non-musiciens comme les musiciens associent les notes graves à la partie inférieure et les notes aiguës à la partie supérieure de l’espace. Les deux groupes liaient aussi les notes graves au côté gauche et les notes aiguës au côté droit, mais ce lien n’était automatique que chez les musiciens. Enfin, des stimuli musicaux plus complexes (intervalles mélodiques) n’évoquaient ces associations spatiales que chez les musiciens et ce, uniquement sur le plan horizontal.<p>Ces recherches contribuent de plusieurs manières à la compréhension de la cognition musicale. Premièrement, nous avons montré que les consonnes et les voyelles diffèrent dans leurs interactions avec la musique, une idée à mettre en perspective avec les rôles différents de ces phonèmes dans l’évolution du langage. Ensuite, les travaux sur les représentations spatiales des hauteurs musicales ouvrent la voie à un courant de recherche qui aidera à dévoiler les liens potentiels entre habiletés musicales et spatiales.<p>/<p>The purpose of this work was to examine the functional specificity of musical pitch processing and representation. To this aim, we compared musical pitch processing to (1) the phonological processing of speech and (2) the spatial associations evoked by ordered sequences. The four studies described here all use classical methods of cognitive psychology, which have been adapted to our research question. We have employed Garner’s (1974) speeded classification task (Study 1), the analysis of illusory conjunctions in memory (Study 2), the additivity of the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of event-related potentials (Study 3), as well as the observation of spatial associations of response codes (Study 4).<p>The three first studies examined, in non-musician participants, the specificity of pitch processing compared to phoneme processing in songs. Studies 1 and 2 revealed a surprising effect of phoneme category on their interactions with melodic processing: vowels were more integrated with melody than were consonants. This was true for both on-line processing of sung nonwords (Study 1) and for the memory traces of these nonwords (Study 2, using a forced-choice recognition task allowing the occurrence of illusory conjunctions). The difference between vowels and consonants was not due to acoustic-phonetic properties such as phoneme sonority. The results of the third study showed that the MMN in response to pitch and to vowel deviations was not additive and that its brain topography did not differ as a function of the kind of deviation. This suggests that vowel processing is not independent from pitch processing, even at the pre-attentive level.<p>In the fourth study, we compared pitch processing to another domain: spatial cognition. We showed that both musicians and non-musicians map pitch onto space, in that they associate low-pitched tones to the lower spatial field and high-pitched tones to the higher spatial field. Both groups of participants also associated low pitched-tones with the left and high-pitched tones with the right, but this association was automatic only in musicians. Finally, more complex musical stimuli such as melodic intervals evoked these spatial associations in the horizontal plane only in musicians.<p>This work contributes to the understanding of music cognition in several ways. First, we have shown that consonants and vowels differ in their interactions with music, an idea related to the contrasting roles of these phonemes in language evolution. Second, the work on the spatial representation of pitch opens the path to research that will help uncover the potential links between musical and spatial abilities.<p> / Doctorat en sciences psychologiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

"October 2003." / Includes bibliographical references / 592 leaves. : / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Chiefly in English; some Polish text in pt. B. / Comprises three types of material: composition (pt. A); performance (pt. C); and, musicology (pt. B.), and is intended to reflect the author's professional activities as composer, pianist and writer. The various writings and texts all relate to the life and music of Witold Lutoslawski (1993-2003). Earlier publications have been excluded because they are referred to (and reflected in) the author's thesis: Pitch organisation in the music of Witold Lutoslawski since 1979 (Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Leeds, 1992) / Thesis (D.Mus.)--University of Adelaide, Elder School of Music, 2004?