Infants' Perception of Melodies: The Role of Melodic Contour

1984 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra E. Trehub ◽  
Dale Bull ◽  
Leigh A. Thorpe
Keyword(s):  
1984 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 821-830
Author(s):  
Sandra E. Trehub ◽  
Dale Bull ◽  
Leigh A. Thorpe
Keyword(s):  

1984 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 477-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary C. Dyson ◽  
Anthony J. Watkins

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haley Elisabeth Kragness ◽  
Laurel Trainor

Proper segmentation of auditory streams is essential for understanding music. Many cues, including meter, melodic contour, and harmony, influence adults’ perception of musical phrase boundaries. To date, no studies have examined young children’s musical grouping in a production task. We used a musical self-pacing method to investigate (1) whether dwell times index young children’s musical phrase grouping and, if so, (2) whether children dwell longer on phrase boundaries defined by harmonic cues specifically. In Experiment 1, we asked 3-year-old children to self-pace through chord progressions from Bach chorales (sequences in which metrical, harmonic, and melodic contour grouping cues aligned) by pressing a computer key to present each chord in the sequence. Participants dwelled longer on chords in the eighth position, which corresponded to phrase endings. In Experiment 2, we tested 3-, 4-, and 7-year-old children’s sensitivity to harmonic cues to phrase grouping when metrical regularity cues and melodic contour cues were misaligned with the harmonic phrase boundaries. In this case, 7- and 4-year-olds but not 3-year-olds dwelled longer on harmonic phrase boundaries, suggesting that the influence of harmonic cues on phrase boundary perception develops substantially between 3 and 4 years of age in Western children. Overall, we show that the musical dwell time method is child-friendly and can be used to investigate various aspects of young children’s musical understanding, including phrase grouping and harmonic knowledge.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 627-641
Author(s):  
Milena Petrović ◽  
Marija Golubović

The aim of this paper is to indicate the importance of the metaphorical terminology and verbal description of music in education and performance due to inevitable role of emotions and embodiment in music experience. Metaphorical music terminology should follow the interpretative maturity, such as for the term scherzo, which would be joke for younger, but forced joke or all but prank for older musicians. For music beginners we can use extramusical verbal symbols: the pulse is represented as the stickman; major with the symbol of sun and minor with the symbol of rain; sequencing is presented with the picture of stairs; the picture of butterfly implies image-schematicity in interpreting the wave melodic contour; children understood duple meter through the picture of a soldier, while triple meter appreciated through the picture of a ballerina; staccato is experienced as a movement, but also as a visual and auditory metaphor. Multimodality plays an important role in music education, because it implies the integration of movement, sound, picture and verbal metaphors. Therefore, the musical experience is described and performance interpreted by following the direction from the emotional sound experience to its cognitive processing. Mul- timodal approach would increase associative thinking and enlarge individual associations on musical terms, which gives a better understanding of music and widens perspective in music education.


Author(s):  
Mark A. Schmuckler

Melody is the most ubiquitous form of musical structure, with which listeners come into contact on a daily basis. Mirroring the prevalence and importance of melody, research in music cognition has focused extensively on the processes involved in perceiving and remembering melodic structure. Despite these years of study, however, our understanding of pitch structure in melody can be described simply, with respect to the two components of tonality and pitch contour. Although the importance of these two components has been recognized over the years, it is only recently that workable models of these components have been proposed. This article describes such models of tonality and melodic contour, and discusses the role of these components in listeners' perceptions of and memory for melody.


1980 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic W. Massaro ◽  
Howard J. Kallman ◽  
Janet L. Kelly

1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric G. Freedman

Previous research on melody recognition indicates that listeners can recognize contour information when melodies are retained for brief intervals and can recognize interval information of melodies held in longterm memory. However, past research has failed to control for the diatonicism and familiarity of the melodies. In three experiments, the relative contributions of contour and interval information during the abstraction of novel diatonic and nondiatonic sequences are examined. Listeners recognize the melodic contours of melodies held over an extended retention interval. Additionally, listeners use the diatonic context to recognize both the contour and interval information. In nondiatonic contexts, listeners rely predominantly on the contour information. In addition, musically experienced listeners can recognize both the contour and interval information, whereas musically inexperienced listeners rely predominantly on the contour information. Recognition of melodic contour remained relatively accurate during a 24-hr retention interval. Thus, the results indicate that the diatonic scale mediates the abstraction of interval information. Listeners seem to acquire a musical schema for diatonic melodies.


JAMA ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 195 (12) ◽  
pp. 1005-1009 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Fernbach
Keyword(s):  

JAMA ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 195 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. E. Van Metre

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winnifred R. Louis ◽  
Craig McGarty ◽  
Emma F. Thomas ◽  
Catherine E. Amiot ◽  
Fathali M. Moghaddam

AbstractWhitehouse adapts insights from evolutionary anthropology to interpret extreme self-sacrifice through the concept of identity fusion. The model neglects the role of normative systems in shaping behaviors, especially in relation to violent extremism. In peaceful groups, increasing fusion will actually decrease extremism. Groups collectively appraise threats and opportunities, actively debate action options, and rarely choose violence toward self or others.


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