Can silence affect perception? Duration and frequency of occurrence in perceived pitch structure

Authors

  • Michael E. Lantz Dept. of Psychology, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI. C1A 4P3
  • Lola L. Cuddy Dept. of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ont. K7L 3N6

Keywords:

Acoustics, Natural frequencies, Magnitude accumulator, Tone sequences

Abstract

The duration and frequency of occurrence of tones and the silence between the tones are manipulated to understand their effect on the perceived organization or pitch structure of tone sequences. Duration and frequency of occurrence are both elemental in music and act upon a single mechanism that in turn increments a magnitude accumulator. Within a sequence of tones the longer tones are judged to be more salient than the shorter but more frequent tones. Sequences were generated from six-tone tonesets, each of which contained tones of two major triads from maximally distant keys. Three sequence conditions that were created from the tonesets include the tones of one major triad that were longer than the other tones, modification of the first sequence, and modification of the original sequence. The finding suggests that the duration of an event has perceptual priority over the frequency of occurrence of the event.

Downloads

Published

2006-09-01

How to Cite

1.
Lantz ME, Cuddy LL. Can silence affect perception? Duration and frequency of occurrence in perceived pitch structure. Canadian Acoustics [Internet]. 2006 Sep. 1 [cited 2023 Sep. 21];34(3):38-9. Available from: https://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/1811

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 3 (2006)

Section

Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada

License

Copyright on articles is held by the author(s). The corresponding author has the right to grant on behalf of all authors and does grant on behalf of all authors, a worldwide exclusive licence (or non-exclusive license for government employees) to the Publishers and its licensees in perpetuity, in all forms, formats and media (whether known now or created in the future)
i)    to publish, reproduce, distribute, display and store the Contribution;
ii)    to translate the Contribution into other languages, create adaptations, reprints, include within collections and create summaries, extracts and/or, abstracts of the Contribution;
iii)    to exploit all subsidiary rights in the Contribution,
iv)    to provide the inclusion of electronic links from the Contribution to third party material where-ever it may be located;
v)    to licence any third party to do any or all of the above.