The Mutability of Pitch Memory in a Tonal Context

Abstract

An experiment that investigates how a tonal context affects pitch recognition is presented. Melodic sequences that were composed to invoke varying degrees of tonality were rated by musicians (N = 34) for perceived strength of tonality. The sequences were then used in a pitch memory test based on a delayed-tone recognition paradigm. Listeners (N = 48) were asked to compare the first note of each melody (the standard) with a final, appended comparison tone that was either the same pitch or transposed by one semitone. The results showed that various factors including the presence of an interference tone one semitone away from the standard tone, the degree of tonality of the melodic sequence, and the tonal fitness of the standard and comparison tones predicted listener responses. In particular, the fitness of the comparison tone was a key factor in how listeners performed in the recognition task: comparison tones with higher fitness values increased performance when the comparison and standard were the same but decreased performance when they were different. These results illustrate how tonality can both facilitate and interfere with pitch encoding and recognition, providing a detailed and definitive perspective on how pitch memory is influenced by tonal contexts.