The Role of Accent Salience and Joint Accent Structure in Meter Perception

17 Pages·2009·0.3 MB·English

JournalofExperimentalPsychology: ©2009AmericanPsychologicalAssociation
HumanPerceptionandPerformance 0096-1523/09/$12.00 DOI:10.1037/a0013482
2009,Vol.35,No.1,264–280
The Role of Accent Salience and Joint Accent Structure in
Meter Perception
Robert J. Ellis and Mari R. Jones
TheOhioStateUniversity
Previousresearchindicatesthattemporalaccents(TAs;accentsduetotimechanges)playastrongrole
inmeterperception,butevidencefavoringaroleformelodicaccents(MAs;accentsduetopitchchanges)
ismixed.TheauthorsclaimthatthismixedsupportforMAsistheresultofafailuretocontrolforaccent
salienceandaddressedthishypothesisinExperiment1.Listenersratedthemetricalclarityof13-tone
melodiesinwhichthemagnitudeandpatternofMAsandTAswerevaried.Resultsshowedthatmetrical
clarityincreasedwithbothMAandTAmagnitude.InExperiment2,listenerswereaskedtoratemetrical
clarityinmelodieswithcombinationsofMAandTApatternstoallowtheauthorstoascertainwhether
these two accent types combined additively or interactively in meter perception. With respect to the
additiveorinteractivedebate,thefindingshighlightedtheimportanceof(a)accentsalience,(b)scoring
methods,and(c)conceptualversusstatisticalinterpretationsofdata.Implicationsfordynamicattending
andneuropsychologicalinvestigationsarediscussed.
Keywords:accentsalience,meterperception
When a listener taps to a musical event, taps are typically in An important contributor to meter is the relative timing of
synchronywithaperceived“beat,”reflectingaperceivedtemporal accents. An accent refers to a tone in a sequence that stands out
regularityinthemusicalsurface(cf.Snyder&Krumhansl,2001; from other tones along some auditory dimension (e.g., pitch,
Temperley,2001).Howthesebeatsareorganizedintimeisoneof intensity, timbre, duration). More concretely, an accent is a “de-
the functions of meter. Meter is fundamental to music; it is what viation from a norm that is contextually established by serial
makesawaltzawaltzandamarchamarch.Itisalsosignificant constraints” (Jones, 1987, p. 624); thus, an accent acquires its
psychologically, in that the perception of meter depends on a statusfromsurroundingtones(Cooper&Meyer,1960).Accented
listener’s ability to recover temporal regularity from a sound tonesoftencorrespondtostrongerbeats(Cooper&Meyer,1960;
patterncontainingtemporalirregularities.Furthermore,becauseof Handel,1989;Huron&Royal,1996;Jones,1987,1993;Lerdahl
its periodic nature, an established metrical framework affords a &Jackendoff,1983).
basisforalistenertogenerateanticipationsabouttimingsoffuture
Two common types of accents are melodic accents (MAs;
events, thereby guiding attending in a dynamic fashion (Jones,
accents due to pitch relationships) and temporal accents (TAs;
1976, 1990, 2001, 2004; London, 2001). Picking up on temporal
accentsduetotimerelationships).TheprecisenatureofMAand
regularity in a musical event facilitates listener performance in a
TAcontributionstomusicperceptioncontinuestobeanimportant
number of tasks, including (a) judgments of event duration (e.g.,
research topic. One line of research has sought to determine
Boltz,1991,1998;Jones&Boltz,1989),(b)judgmentsofmelodic
whetherMAsandTAs,takentogether,makeadditive(e.g.,Palmer
phrase completeness (e.g., Boltz, 1989a), (c) discrimination of
& Krumhansl 1987a, 1987b) or interactive (e.g., Jones, 1987,
pitchchanges(e.g.,Jones,Boltz,&Kidd,1982;Jones,Johnston&
1993; Jones & Boltz, 1989) contributions to the listening experi-
Puente,2006;Jones,Moynihan,MacKenzie,&Puente,2002),and
ence. As Schellenberg, Krysciak, and Campbell (2000) have
(d) discrimination of time changes (e.g., Large & Jones, 1999).
pointed out, the answer to this question has implications for
Even very young listeners are sensitive to differences between
low-level representations of pitch and duration as well as higher
metrical frameworks (Hannon & Johnson, 2005; Hannon &
level representations of phrase grouping, expectancies, and emo-
Trehub,2005,2006).
tion,makingitacriticalissuetothefieldofmusicpsychology.
Alternatively,otherresearchsuggeststhatMAscontributeneg-
RobertJ.EllisandMariRiessJones,DepartmentofPsychology,The ligibly to music perception (e.g., Hannon, Snyder, Eerola, &
OhioStateUniversity. Krumhansl, 2004; Huron & Royal, 1996; Snyder & Krumhansl,
ThisresearchwascompletedaspartofRobertJ.Ellis’smaster’sthesis 2001). However, such findings create a logical problem: If MAs
and was generously supported by the Caroline B. Monahan Fund for failtoreliablycontributetometerperception,thendiscussionsof
Experimental Research Support in the Music Cognition/Perception Area whether MAs and TAs combine additively or interactively in
within the Department of Psychology. We gratefully acknowledge com-
meterperceptionbecomemoot.Thus,beforeaddressingtheissue
mentsfromDevinMcAuleyandMollyHenryandextensivefeedbackfrom
of additivity versus interactivity (the focus of Experiment 2), we
PeterPfordresher.
firstexaminethemixedevidenceregardingtheimpactofMAsin
CorrespondenceconcerningthisarticleshouldbeaddressedtoRobertJ.
Ellis, 175 Psychology, The Ohio State University, 1835 Neil Ave., meter perception. In reviewing this literature, we note that one
Columbus,OH43201.E-mail:[email protected] overlooked reason for mixed outcomes involves the stimuli in-
264
METERPERCEPTION 265
volved.StimuliwithTAsthataremorepronouncedthanMAsmay tokenterminologyisusefulhereindistinguishingbetweengeneral
bias listeners toward TA information. Only when the salience of and particular; cf. Esposito, 1998; Levelt, 1989). For example, a
MAsiscomparabletothatofTAscantheirrelativecontributions salient pitch change might occur if three successive tones, each
(withinthesamemelody)beassessed.Asananalogy,supposethat ascending by 1 semitone (ST), were followed by a pitch that
astudyreportsthatsubjectsexhibitapreferenceforeatingapples ascended by 5 ST. A salient time change might occur if three
from one bowl over oranges from another, but neglects to report successiveshortIOIswerefollowedbyalongIOI.
thatthebowloforangeswasoutofsubjects’reach.Thisconclu- TheMAtyperefersbroadlytoanysalientlocalserialchangein
sionismeaningless:Onlyifthebowlsofapplesandorangeswere pitch relationships and has three common tokens (cf. Huron &
equally accessible would the finding that subjects preferred one Royal, 1996; Jones, 1987, 1993). First, a pitch-contour accent
overtheotherbeinteresting. dependsonatemporalorderingofpitches;itresultsfromalocal
Issues of additivity versus interactivity in perception were ad- change in the direction of pitch trajectory (e.g., ascending to
dressedinclassicworkbyGarner(1970,1974),whoproposedthat descending), with accentuation on the inflection point (cf. Tho-
relationships between two dimensions exist along a continuum massen,1982).Second,apitch-leapaccentfallsonthesecondof
rangingfromseparable(i.e.,additive)tointegral(i.e.,interactive). twotonesformingapitchinterval,whenthatintervalislargerthan
However, Garner also noted that when two constituent stimulus preceding pitch intervals in a series (cf. Tekman, 1997, 1998;
dimensionsarenotmatchedforsalience,themoresalientdimen- Thomassen,1982).Third,atonalaccentarisesfromaserialshift
sioncanaffecttheperceptionofthelesssalientdimension,thereby in“stability”withinatonalcontext,thatis,fromtheleadingtone
obscuring these relationships (Garner & Felfoldy, 1970; see also tothetonic(keynote;cf.Bharucha,1984;Dawe,Platt,&Racine,
Melara & Marks, 1993, 1994; Tekman, 1997, 1998, 2001). Our 1993;Smith&Cuddy,1989).
investigation of MA and TA salience fits within this broader The TA type refers to any salient local serial change in time
context. relationshipsandhastwocommontokens.Arhythmicaccent(or
Inwhatfollows,weoutlinetwoopposinghypothesesaboutthe pause accent; e.g., Jones & Pfordresher, 1997) results from a
respective roles of MAs and TAs in meter perception. The joint change within a serial pattern of IOIs (e.g., three 200-ms IOIs
accentstructurehypothesis,whichpositsrolesforbothMAsand followedbya600-msIOI),anditslocationdependsontheserial
TAs,iscontrastedwithatemporalaccentbiashypothesis,which context(Jones,1987;Jones&Pfordresher,1997;Narmour,1996;
holds that meter perception depends primarily on TAs. Both hy- Povel & Essens, 1985; Povel & Okkerman, 1981). A duration
potheses have received support, but because previous investiga- accentoccursonatonethathasalongerduration(i.e.,fromtone
tions have failed to systematically calibrate the salience of MAs onset to offset) than neighboring tones in a sequence (Woodrow,
and TAs in the stimuli employed, their conclusions remain tenu- 1951;cf.Castellano,Bharucha,&Krumhansl,1984).
ous.Thisleadsustoformulateathird,anaccentsaliencehypoth-
esis,whichmakesexplicittherelationshipbetweenserialchange
The Role of MAs in Meter Perception: Two
andaccentsalience.
Contrasting Views
Meter, Accent Types, and Accent Tokens Dynamic Attending and Joint Accent Structure
Meter involves a succession of strong and weak beats, equally One view that favors a role for both MAs and TAs in meter
spacedintimeandorganizedintometricalframeworks(Lerdahl& perception comes from dynamic attending theory (Jones, 1976,
Jackendoff, 1983; Justus & Bharucha, 2002). Two of the most 2004; Jones & Boltz, 1989; Large & Jones, 1999; McAuley &
commonmetricalframeworksintheWesternclassictraditionare Jones, 2003). This approach assumes that recurrent time spans
duple and triple meter (cf. Huron, 2006, p. 195). Duple meter withinreal-worldeventscansynchronizeattendingviathemech-
refers to a pattern of alternating strong (S) and weak (w) beats anismofentrainment.Entrainmentisthephysicalprocesswhereby
(SwSwSw ... ), frequently heard in marches. Triple meter, con- internalattendingperiodicitiesbecomeattunedtosalientrecurrent
sistingofastrongbeatfollowedbytwoweakbeats(SwwSww...), stimulustimespans.Resultingattentionalsynchroniesarepossible
is associated with waltzes. Meter implies temporal invariance in atmultipletimescales,andtheyarefacilitatedwhentimespansat
two levels: shorter (lower order) time spans marked by the inter- differenttimescalesarehierarchicallynested.Inauditorypatterns,
onset intervals (IOIs) between successive S and w elements; and suchtimespansaremarkedbyaccentsthatarisefromsalientserial
longer (higher order) time spans, or metrical periods, marked by changesinpitch(MAs)and/ortiming(TAs).WhenbothMAsand
successiveSelements(cf.Benjamin,1984;Lerdahl&Jackendoff, TAs are present in a single pattern, they contribute to the emer-
1983;Yeston,1976). gence of a common higher order time structure, or joint accent
Accentsareusedtomarkstrongbeatsandhenceareimportant structure(JAS;e.g.,Boltz&Jones,1986;Jones,1987,1993).
tometer(Cooper&Meyer,1960;Handel,1989;Huron&Royal, Atabasiclevel,aJASreferstotherelativetimingsofdifferent
1996;Jones,1987;1993;Lerdahl&Jackendoff,1983).Intheory, accent types within a melody. These properties are illustrated in
accents of different types correspond to defining acoustic dimen- Figures 1 and 2. In Figure 1, local serial changes in a single,
sions(e.g.,pitch,time).Ourapproachgoesfurtherthanothersin isochronous, melodic line instantiate both pitch-leap accents (an
itsexplicitacknowledgmentoftheroleoftimeindefiningaccents MA token; large open circles) and duration accents (a TA token;
ofalltypes.Thatis,accenttypeistakentomeanafamilyofsalient large solid circles). In this example, the accent periods of both
local changes over time along a common dimension (e.g., pitch, MAsandTAsareconsistentlydoublethelowerordertimespans
loudness,duration).Inauditorysequences,serialvariationsalong (IOIs).Thisrelationshipresultsininvariantaccentperiodswithin
each dimension (type) express token accents of that type (type/ amusicalevent.Accordingtodynamicattendingtheory,invariant
266 ELLISANDJONES
long short
ttoonnee ttoonnee
period= 2 ×IOI
(cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127)
MA
aacccceenntt
ttyyppee TA (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127)
period= 2 ×IOI
11 22 3333 44 5555 6666 77
serial position
Figure1. Anexampleofthejointaccentstructure(JAS)foranisochronousmelody.Melodicaccents(MAs)
temporalaccents(TAs),andunaccentedtonesareindicatedbythelargeopencircles,largesolidcircles,and
smallcircles,respectively.IOI(cid:1)inter-onsetintervals.
accent timing should promote more effective entrainment than 1991; Boltz & Jones, 1986; Deutsch, 1980; Drake, Dowling, &
variableaccenttiming(Large&Jones,1999). Palmer,1991),(d)detectdevianttonesmoreaccurately(Dowling,
Figure2illustratesfourJASsthatemergefromcombinationsof Lung,&Herrbold,1987;Monahan,Kendall,&Carterette,1987),
duple (D (cid:1) 2 (cid:2) IOI) and triple (T (cid:1) 3 (cid:2) IOI) MA and TA (e)identifyconstituentaccentpatternsmoreaccurately(Keller&
patterns.1Throughoutthisarticle,weusethephraseaccentpattern Burnham, 2005), and (f) synchronize to constituent tones more
(eitherMApatternorTApattern)torefertoatemporalsuccession precisely (Jones & Pfordresher, 1997; Pfordresher, 2003). In ad-
ofaccentsandthephrasemetertorefertolisteners’percepts.We dition,thetemporalstructureofasequencecanhighlightthepitch
useashorthandnotationtodescribeJASs,witheachaccentperiod ortonalstructureofamelody(Jonesetal.,1982;Laden,1994).
(D, T) subscripted by its accent type (MA, TA); for example, In the dynamic attending approach, specific predictions are
D T denotes a melody with a duple MA pattern and a triple madeaboutmeter.Indiscordant-JASmelodies,temporalcomplex-
MA TA
TApattern.Complexityreferstotheoverallirregularityofaccent itiesresultinlessefficiententrainment,reducingalistener’sability
timing;JAScomplexitydependsuponconstituentaccentpatterns totracksuccessivetonesinrealtime(Jones&Pfordresher,1997;
(i.e., both MA and TA periods). An index of JAS complexity is Pfordresher,2003)andreducingmetricalclarity.Akeyprediction
given by the quotient (or ratio; e.g., Jones, 1987) of the larger isthatconcordantJASswillelicitfasterandstrongerperceptions
accentperioddividedbythesmalleraccentperiod.InbothFigures of metrical clarity than discordant JASs, due to facilitation from
1and2A,forexample,theMAandtheTApatternsarebothduple regularly timed accents in concordant JASs and/or interference
(DMADTA),andtheaccentperiodquotientis1((cid:1)2/2),indicating fromconflictingaccentperiodsindiscordantJASs.Thisprediction
low temporal complexity (high regularity). In Figure 2B assumes that MAs and TAs have roughly equal salience. We
(TMATTA),bothaccentpatternsaretriple,andthequotientisagain restate this as a JAS hypothesis: When multiple accent types or
1 ((cid:1) 3/3), again indicating low complexity. In general, small tokensarepresentinamelody,meterperceptionisdeterminedby
integer quotients (1, 2, 3, 4) indicate low temporal complexity. JASproperties.Thus,aconcordantJASwillelicittheperceptofa
ThesehighlyregularJASpatternsaretermedconcordant(Jones& metermoreclearlyandimmediatelythanadiscordantJAS.
Pfordresher,1997).Bycontrast,morecomplexJASsemergewhen
dupleandtripleaccentpatternsarebothpresentinasinglemelody,
asinFigures2C(T D )and2D(D T ).Inthesepatterns, 1Inthesepatterns,allinitialphasedifferencesbetweenaccentpatterns
MA TA MA TA
accent timing is less regular, as indexed by a noninteger accent were0;thatis,bothdupleandtripleaccentpatternsbeginwithanaccent
periodquotient,1.5((cid:1)3/2).TheseJASsaretermeddiscordant. onTone1.Accentphasinghasbeenconsideredelsewhere(Boltz&Jones,
Dynamic attending theory implies that lower JAS complexity 1986; Jones, 1987, 1993; Pfordresher, 2003). Phase shifting two accent
periods(thatareotherwiseconcordant)leadstoslightlyworseperformance
facilitates listener comprehension, due to more efficient entrain-
(i.e.,inmelodyreproductionortappingsynchronization)thannonshifted
ment.Thisviewissupportedbyempiricalevidence.Whenlisten-
concordantmelodies,butbetterperformancethanmelodieswithdiscordant
ingtomelodieswithaconcordantJAS(comparedwithlisteningto
JASs(whetherphase-shiftedornot),dependingonthephaseofashift.In
discordant-JAS melodies), listeners (a) judge the melodies’ end-
thepresentstudy,settingtheinitialphaseto0wasnecessarytopreserve
ings as more complete (Boltz, 1989a, 1989b), (b) reproduce the globalaspectsofmelodies(i.e.,twoascendingsix-tonecells,withaccents
melodies’durationsmoreaccurately(Boltz,1998;Jones,Boltz,& onTones1,7,and13)despitevariationinconstituentaccentpatternsover
Klein,1993),(c)recallmelodicstructuremoreaccurately(Boltz, thesession;seetheMethodssectionofExperiment1formoredetails.
METERPERCEPTION 267
Accent serial position Accent JAS
Period period
type 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 quotient label
D
MA
A MA (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) 2 1.0 D D
TA (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) 2 MA TA
D
TA
T
MA
MA (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) 3
B 1.0 T T
TTAA (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) 33 MA TA
T
TA
T
MA
C MMAA (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) (cid:127)(cid:127) 33 1.5 T D
TA (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) 2 MA TA
D
TA
D
MA
D MA (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) 2 1.5 D T
TA (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) (cid:127) 3 MA TA
T
TA
Figure 2. A schematic illustration of four joint accent structures (JASs) formed by combinations of accent
periods (duple, triple) marked by melodic accents (MA) and temporal accents (TA). All tone onsets are
isochronous.ConcordantJASsappearinPanelsAandB,anddiscordantJASsinPanelsCandD.
We note that the dynamic attending approach is not the only AdditionalevidencefavoringtheTAbiashypothesiscomesfrom
theoryinwhichMAsarepositedtoplayaroleinperception(cf. ananalysisofmusicalscores.Randomlysamplingalargecorpusof
Dixon & Cambouropoulos, 2000; Temperley & Bartlette, 2002; folktunes,HuronandRoyal(1996)correlatedtemporallocationsof
ToiviainenandSnyder,2003).However,dynamicattendingtheory MA and TA tokens with their respective metrical positions (as in
differsfromotherapproachesinitsincorporationof(a)accentsas scoredtimesignatures).Onlyrhythmicaccentsyieldedpositivecor-
serialchanges,(b)JASpatterns,and(c)entrainmentactivities. relations between accent size and scored metrical position (their
Experiment 1). Furthermore, even in melodies containing no TAs
(their Experiment 2), neither pitch-leap nor pitch-contour accents
Temporal Accent Bias
significantlycorrelatedwiththestrongmetricalpositions.Huronand
Royal(1996)concludedthatthis“callsintoquestion”theclaimthat
Although the JAS hypothesis assumes that both MA and TA
pitch-leapsfunctionasaccents(p.501).
accent patterns can contribute equally to meter, this assumption
Finally, a number of theoretical approaches also assume (ex-
hasbeenquestioned.Inavarietyoftasks,MAshavebeenfound
plicitlyortacitly)thatperceptsofmeterarebiasedtowardtempo-
tocontributerelativelylittleinformationcomparedwithTAs.Inan
ral accent patterns (e.g., Desain & Honing, 1989; Drake & Ber-
earlystudy,Woodrow(1911)foundthatMAswereinconsistentin
trand,2001;Johnson-Laird,1991;Longuet-Higgins&Lee,1982;
theirabilitytoinducetonegroupings;somelistenersheardthemas
Parncutt, 1994; Povel & Essens, 1985; for a review, see Clarke,
beginning a group, others as ending a group. Monahan and Cart-
1999).Togetherwiththeempiricalfindings,theseaccountscanbe
erette(1985)examinedratingsofsimilarityforpairsofmelodies
summarizedinaTAbiashypothesis:Metricalperceptsarebiased
that varied in both MA and TA properties and found that most
towardthepatternoftemporal(ratherthanmelodic)accents.When
subjectsbasedtheirratingsonTA,notMA,properties.Snyderand
both MA and TA patterns are present, listeners are biased to use
Krumhansl (2001) asked subjects to “tap to the beat” of two
TApatternswhenperceivingmeter.
versions of ragtime piano music (rhythms only vs. pitch plus
rhythms);theyfoundthattheadditionofpitchinformationdidnot
facilitate beat finding. Hannon et al. (2004) found that listeners’ Accent Salience: A Neglected Concept
ratings of meter in folk songs relied on both MA (including
pitch-leap, contour) and TA (rhythmic accents, duration accents) TheJAShypothesisassumesthatbothMAsandTAsaresalient,
factors,butMAsfailedtoinfluenceratingssignificantlyinmelo- whereastheTAbiashypothesisassumesthatTAsareselectively
diesthatcontainedbothTAsandMAs.TheyconcludedthatTAs salient for meter perception. The former approach considers MA
havea“primaryrole”inpredictingmeter(p.968).Itisnotewor- salience necessary; the latter approach treats MA salience as
thy, however, that MA factors were more predictive in melodies irrelevant.Noempiricalinvestigationshavesystematicallyexam-
thatcontainedtemporallyregularMApatterns. inedtherelativesalienceofMAsandTAs.Insomeinvestigations,
268 ELLISANDJONES
accentlocationsaredefinedaprioriinexperimenter-createdstim- within a global serial context (details in the Methods section of
uli. For example, MA locations might be defined as contour Experiment 1). All other things equal, accent salience should be
inflectionsortonesofatonictriad,andTAsasthetonesfollowing systematically affected by the magnitude of these local serial
apause(i.e.,amissingbeat)inanotherwiseisochronoussequence changes.
(Boltz, 1991; Boltz & Jones, 1986; Jones & Pfordresher, 1997; Jones(1987,1993)alsoarguedthattheaccentuationpotentialof
Pfordresher,2003).BetterperformancewithconcordantJASsthan anytonedependsuponthenumberofaccentsthatcoincideonthat
discordant JASs provides only indirect support for MA salience, tone. Here we propose that accent salience monotonically in-
because the degree to which MA factors contribute to the JAS is creases with the number of local serial changes on a given tone.
leftunexplored.Towit,MonahanandCarterette(1985)hypothe- Forexample,ifatoneisbothlengthenedindurationandacontour
sizethatTAsaliencemighthavebeengreaterthanMAsaliencein inflection, then it should have greater salience than a tone with
their melodies, potentially explaining listeners’ reliance on TA only one of these two accent tokens. Because little evidence
informationinjudgingsimilarity. supportssuchclaims,wesoughttoevaluatetheminExperiment2.
A disparity in salience between MAs and TAs may be more Anaccentsaliencehypothesisaddressesbothoftheseissues.It
pronouncedinresearchthatexamineslistenerresponsestooriginal holdsthatthesalienceofatoneasanaccentincreaseswith(a)the
compositions (Boltz, 1989a, 1989b, 1989c, 1991; Hannon et al., magnitudeoflocalserialchangesassociatedwiththattoneand(b)
2004;Palmer&Krumhansl,1987a,1987b;Snyder&Krumhansl, thenumberofserialchanges(indifferentdimensions)associated
2001) or in analyses of metrical information within excerpts of withthattone.Thus,a5-STpitchleapshouldhavegreatersalience
“real” music (Dixon & Cambouropoulos, 2000; Huron & Royal, thana2-STpitchleap,anda5-STincombinationwitha100-ms
1996;Temperley&Bartlette,2002;Toiviainen&Snyder,2003). tone duration (vs. a 60-ms tone duration) should have greater
Although dealing with naturalistic stimuli increases ecological saliencethaneithera5-STpitchleapora100-msdurationalone.
validity, it denies the experimenter control of important indepen-
dent variables such as accent magnitude. Failure to control for Plan of Experiments
differential MA versus TA salience sets the stage for misleading
We addressed three main questions in this research. First, in
conclusions.Forinstance,ifaselectedexcerpthappenstocontain
Experiment1,weasked,“Insimplemelodies,whatmagnitudeof
TAs that are more salient than MAs, then a listener would likely
serialchange(e.g.,inapitchleap,oratonelengthening)makesan
ignorethelatteranduseonlyTAstoaidmeterperception.Onthe
accent salient?” In this experiment, we tested the accent salience
surface,suchafindingwouldappeartofavortheTAbiashypoth-
hypothesispredictionthataccentsalienceincreaseswiththelocal
esis. But because the salience of constituent MAs and TAs (in
magnitudeofindividualserialchanges.Wemanipulatedthemag-
isolation) is typically unknown, little can be claimed about their
nitude of pitch-leap accents (MAs) and duration accents (TAs)
relativecontributionswhenpresenttogether.OnlywhenMAsand
across different melodies that contained minimal global variation
TAsareexperimentallyequatedforsaliencecantheirrelationship
in serial structure (details in Experiment 1, Methods). We chose
bevalidlyassessed.
theseparticularaccenttokensbecausetheirmagnitudesareeasyto
If accent salience depends upon serial change along a dimen-
quantify(i.e.,asthenumberofsemitonesinthepitchleaporthe
sion, then a resolution of conflicting evidence about the role of
duration of the tone in milliseconds) and hence to “titrate.” Lis-
MAs (vs. TAs) in meter perception (highlighted in contrasting
tenersheard13-tonemelodieswithpatternsofpitch-leapordura-
predictions of the JAS and TA bias hypotheses) may turn on
tionaccentsandratedperceivedmetricalclarity.
calibrating accent salience. We argue that these conflicting find-
Second, in Experiment 2, we asked, “Do concordant patterns,
ings reflect a research orientation to accent structure in which
which contain two different coinciding accent types (MA plus
differencesinthesalienceofvariousaccenttypesareoverlooked
TA), induce meter more clearly than patterns with having only a
or left uncalibrated. To address this, we offer an operational
single accent type?” This experiment evaluated the other predic-
definition of accent salience involving two properties: (a) the
tion of the accent salience hypothesis: that metrical clarity in-
magnitude of a change along a given acoustic dimension and (b)
creases with the number of different (coinciding) accents. We
thenumberofserialchangesassociatedwiththattone.
tested this by having MAs and TAs occur either together or
In linking accent salience to the magnitude of a local serial
separatelyindifferentmelodies.
changealongsomedimension,weshouldnoteanimportantqual-
Third,inExperiment2,wealsoevaluatedpredictionsoftheJAS
ificationthatinvolvesglobalcontext.Alllocalchangesnecessarily
hypothesisversusthoseoftheTAbiashypothesisusingmelodies
happenwithinalargerprevailing(global)serialcontext.Thus,the
thatcontainedbothMAsandTAs.Thesehypothesesofferdiffer-
salience of any local serial change is modulated by the structural
entanswerstothequestion,“Domelodyandrhythminteractsuch
variability within a surrounding context. For instance, greater
that concordant JASs facilitate quicker and clearer metrical per-
globalvariabilityinrhythmicpatternslowersthesalienceoflocal
ceptsthandiscordantJASs?”TheJAShypothesisansweris“Yes”:
time changes (Jones & Yee, 1997; Large & Jones, 1999, Experi-
a concordant JAS should facilitate meter perception, whereas a
ments1and3).Similarly,amusicaleventcontainingawidepitch
discordantJASshouldhinderit.TheTAbiashypothesisansweris
rangecanattenuatethesalienceofembeddedMAs,therebylead-
“No”: salient MAs in JASs will not interfere with meter percep-
ingtoconclusionsconsistentwiththeTAbiashypothesis,apoint
tion,whichdependssolelyuponthepatternofTAs.
weconsiderintheGeneralDiscussion.Becauseneitherlocalnor
globalaspectsofaccentsaliencehavebeencontrolledinprevious
Experiment 1: MA and TA Salience
research,wemanipulatedthemagnitudeoflocalserialchangesof
two accent tokens (pitch-leap accents and duration accents) by InExperiment1,wesystematicallymanipulatedthemagnitude
holding at feasible minima the variability in pitch and timing of local serial changes along two different dimensions (pitch and
METERPERCEPTION 269
time) to assess the accent salience hypothesis. In different melo- randomly assigned in equal numbers to two presentation orders.
dies,thetwoaccenttypes(MA,TA)wereembedded,respectively, Subjects had an average of 4.6 years of formal musical training
as pitch-leap and duration tokens at serial locations specified by (SD(cid:1)3.3;range(cid:1)0–12);allreportednormalhearing.
eitherdupleortriplemetricalframeworks.Ourgoalwastoeval- Apparatus. Stimuli were programmed on a PC-compatible
uate the accent salience hypothesis prediction that a listener’s 200 MHz Pentium computer (Intel, Santa Clara, CA) running
abilitytodifferentiateduplefromtriplemeterimprovesasaccent Version 6.0 of the MIDILAB program (Todd, Boltz, & Jones,
magnitude (i.e., local serial change) increases. We controlled the 1989). The computer interfaced with a Roland MPU-401 MIDI
variability of both the melodic and the temporal global serial processing unit (Roland Corp., Hamamatsu, Japan), which con-
contextthatsurroundedlocalserialchangesbycreatingmelodies trolled a Yamaha TX81Z FM tone generator (Yamaha Corp.,
based on simple, ascending pitch trajectories that unfolded with Hamamatsu, Japan) set to the “sine wave” voice. Stimuli were
uniformIOIs. amplified by a Kenwood KA-5700 amplifier (Kenwood USA,
ArelatedgoalwastouncoverMAandTApatternsofcompa- Long Beach, CA) and delivered individually to subjects through
rable salience levels in preparation for subsequent evaluations of
AKGK-270headphones(AKGAcoustics,Vienna,Austria).
the JAS and temporal bias hypotheses in Experiment 2. To cali-
Stimuliandconditions. Thirty-twounique,13-tonesequences
brateaccentsalienceratings,webuiltuponthemagnitudematch-
(“melodies”)werecreatedwitheitherpitch-leapaccents(anMA)
ing paradigm of J. C. Stevens & Marks (1980; cf. Marks &
ordurationaccents(aTA).Inallmelodies,IOIsbetweensucces-
Gescheider,2002).Unlikethecross-modalitymatchingparadigm
sivetoneswerealways500ms.Allmelodiessharedthesamebasic
(J. C. Stevens & Marks, 1965; S. S. Stevens, 1959), wherein
pitch contour structure: two identical, ascending 6-tone “cells”
subjects adjusted the level of one dimension (e.g., brightness) to
(Tones1–6,Tones7–12)followedbya13thtone(arepeatoftones
matchthelevelofanother(e.g.,loudness),themagnitudematch-
1 and 7). Table 1 shows accent serial locations in duple and triple
ing paradigm required subjects to rate brightness and loudness
accentpatterns.AccentsintheduplepatternoccurredatTones1,3,
separately, but on the same numerical scale. Stimulus values of
5,7,9,11,and13;inthetriplepattern,theyoccurredatTones1,4,
lights and tones receiving the same ratings became x and y coor-
7, 10, and 13. These constraints preserved global pattern structure
dinatesonthecross-modalfunction.Inthepresentstudy,melodies
over the experiment; each 6-tone cell could either have three
with MA patterns or TA patterns were both rated on a common
groupsof2tonesortwogroupsof3tones.
6-pointscaleofmetricalclarity.MagnitudesofMAsandTAsthat
Our choice of pitch-leap and duration accents was also moti-
producedsimilarratingsfromsubjectswereconsideredcompara-
vatedbyglobalpatternstructure.Whilecontouraccentshavebeen
blysalient.
usedinpreviousinvestigationsofmeter(e.g.,Jones&Pfordresher,
1997; Pfordresher, 2003), using them as the MA here would
Method
introducedramaticdifferencesinmelodiccontourshapebetween
Subjects. Twenty-eight Ohio State University (OSU) under- dupleandtripleaccentpatterns.Usingpitchleapaccentsallowed
graduatesinpsychology(whoparticipatedforcoursecredit)were us to hold the locations of contour inflections (i.e., pitch peaks)
Table1
ASchematicIllustrationoftheIsochronousMelodiesUsedinExperiments1and2
Serialposition
Accentpattern/magnitude 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Temporalaccents1
Duple (cid:1) ● (cid:1) ● (cid:1) ● (cid:1) ● (cid:1) ● (cid:1) ● (cid:1)
Triple (cid:1) ● ● (cid:1) ● ● (cid:1) ● ● (cid:1) ● ● (cid:1)
Melodicaccents2
Duple
2ST F5 F#5 G#5 A5 B5 C6 F5 F#5 G#5 A5 B5 C6 F5
3ST D#5 E5 G5 G#5 B5 C6 D#5 E5 G5 G#5 B5 C6 D#5
4ST C#5 D5 F#5 G5 B5 C6 C#5 D5 F#5 G5 B5 C6 C#5
5ST B4 C5 F5 F#5 B5 C6 B4 C5 F5 F#5 B5 C6 B4
Triple
2ST F#5 G5 G#5 A#5 B5 C6 F#5 G5 G#5 A#5 B5 C6 F#5
3ST F5 F#5 G5 A#5 B5 C6 F5 F#5 G5 A#5 B5 C6 F5
4ST E5 F5 F#5 A#5 B5 C6 E5 F5 F#5 A#5 B5 C6 E5
5ST D#5 E5 F5 A#5 B5 C6 D#5 E5 F5 A#5 B5 C6 D#5
Note. Accentpatternsaredupleandtriple.Magnitudeismeasuredsemitones(ST).
1Temporalaccents(largecircles)hadaconstantmagnitudewithinapattern:80-ms,100-ms,120-ms,or140-mstonedurations.Unaccentedtones(small
circles)hadadurationof60ms.
2Melodicaccentsarehighlightedinbold.OnlythosemelodieswithapitchpeakofC6areshowninthistable;patternswithapitchpeakofA5were
constructedsimilarly.
270 ELLISANDJONES
constantthroughouttheexperiment.Inasimilarvein,usingrhyth- Subjectswererandomlyassignedtooneoftwopseudorandom
mic accents to create duple versus triple accent patterns would presentationorders.Withineachorder,nothreesuccessivemelo-
haveintroducedvariabilityintheIOIstructureofmelodiesacross dieshadthesamepitchpeak,accenttype,oraccentmagnitude.At
the experiment. Duration accents preserve isochrony, helping to theendoftheexperiment,subjectscompletedaquestionnaireon
minimizeglobalpatternvariability. theirmusicalbackground(training,musicalpreferences),taskper-
Duration accents assumed one of four magnitudes over the ceptions,andstrategies.
course of the experiment: 80 ms, 100 ms, 120 ms, or 140 ms. Data reduction. Collapsed over the pitch peak variable, each
Tones without accents had a duration of 60 ms. Interstimulus melodywasheardfourtimesoverthecourseoftheexperiment.To
intervals(i.e.,thetimebetweentheoffsetofonetonetotheonset quantify a subject’s perception of each melody, we mapped the
ofthenext)wereadjustedtopreservesequenceisochrony. sevenMIDILABbuttonsontotheintegersfrom–3to3,fromleft
Pitch-leapaccentsalsoassumedoneoffourmagnitudes:2ST, toright.Asignedclarityscore(Cscore)wasthencalculatedasthe
3 ST, 4 ST, or 5 ST; tones without pitch-leap accents were 1 ST meanofthefourresponsestothatmelody.ThesignofaCscore
aboveprecedingtones.Boththenumberandmagnitudeofapitch identifies the meter choice: negative for duple and positive for
leapincreasedthedistancebetweenthelowestandhighestpitches triple.Thenumberitselfreflectstheclarityoftheidentifiedmeter,
ofamelody,whichrangedfrom5STto13ST.Accordingly,the with1correspondingtoslightlyclearand3correspondingtovery
startingpitchofamelodywasadjustedsothatthehighestpitchof clear. A C score near 0 indicates that a subject either (a) consis-
that melody (the pitch peak) was either A5 or C6. Pitch peaks tently pressed the neutral/can’t decide button or (b) pressed a
combination of both groups of two and groups of three buttons,
locations were constant over all melodies (Tones 6 and 12), and
suggesting overall uncertainty about the meter. Each of the 28
werenotpitch-leapaccents.
subjects produced 16 C scores (2 accent types (cid:2) 2 accent pat-
Tones 1, 7, and 13 did not have the same pitch-leap accent
terns (cid:2) 4 accent magnitudes), resulting in a total of 448 data
magnitudes as other accent locations. Tones 7 and 13 were low
points.
pitches, preceded by a pitch that could be up to 13 ST higher,
makingthedirectionoftheleapdifferentfromotheraccents.Tone
1couldonlyformanintervalwithTone2,precludingitfrombeing Results
a pitch-leap accent. However, because Tones 1, 7, and 13 were
In all experiments, we report the eta-square values, calculated
common to both duple and triple frameworks, the presence of a
fromsumsofsquares(SS)tablesasSS /SS ,whichindicates
(potentially larger) pitch accent at these locations could not be effect total
theproportionofvarianceuniquelyexplainedbyaneffect(Keppel
usedtodifferentiatethem.
&Wickens,2004).
Design. Theprimarydesignwas2(cid:2)2(cid:2)4,withaccenttype
Signed clarity scores. Signed C scores for MA melodies and
(MA, TA), accent pattern (duple, triple), and accent magnitude
TA melodies were analyzed separately, each with a 2 (accent
(four values) as within-subjects factors. All melodies were pre-
pattern) (cid:2) 4 (accent magnitude) repeated-measures analysis of
sented twice, in one of two presentation orders. Trial-to-trial
variance (ANOVA). We used care in performing ANOVAs that
constraints held that no three consecutive melodies had the same
includedaccenttypeasafactor,becausesuchadesignimplies,a
accenttype,pattern,magnitude,orpitchpeak.
priori,certainequivalencesbetweenMAandTAmagnitudes(i.e.,
Procedure. Subjects listened to recorded instructions while
assigning 2-ST pitch-leap accents and 80-ms duration accents as
observing a task diagram. They were asked to attend to the
the first level in a unified accent magnitude variable). A main
grouping pattern of strong and weak tones within each melody.
effectforaccenttypewouldthusbemeaningless.
Subjectshadupto3.5sfollowingsequencecessationtopressone
Figure 3 presents C score means as a function of accent type
ofsevenhorizontallyorderedbuttonsonaMIDILABresponsebox
(MA, TA), accent pattern (duple, triple), and accent magnitude
toindicategroupingclarity.Fromlefttoright,buttonswerelabeled
(fourlevels).Asignificantmaineffectappearedforaccentpattern
asfollows:verycleargroupsoftwo,moderatelycleargroupsoftwo, inbothMAmelodies,F(1,27)(cid:1)48.05,(cid:3)2(cid:1).31,p(cid:4).001,and
slight groups of two, neutral/can’t decide, slight groups of three, TA melodies, F(1, 27) (cid:1) 125.41, (cid:3)2 (cid:1) .51, p (cid:4) .001. Melodies
moderately clear groups of three, and very clear groups of three. with a duple accent pattern received negative scores (indicating
Verbal,ratherthannumerical,labelswereusedtominimizeinter- that subjects heard tones grouped by twos) and melodies with a
subjectvariabilityinscaleuse(cf.Borg,1982;Marks&Geschei- triple accent pattern received positive scores (tones grouped by
der, 2002). Subjects were told that the task was subjective and threes). Accent pattern also interacted with accent magnitude in
weregivennoinstructionsregardingresponsespeedotherthanto bothANOVAs.Scorestoduplemelodiesbecamemorenegative,
withholdaresponseuntileachmelodyfinished. andscorestotriplemelodiesmorepositive,asTAaccentmagni-
Subjectsreceivedsixpracticetrialswithfeedback.Tohelporient tudeincreased,F(3,60)(cid:1)224.69,(cid:3)2(cid:1).26,p(cid:4).001.Scoresto
listeners,weusedlargeraccentmagnitudesinthepracticetrialsthan triplemelodiesbecamemorepositiveasMAmagnitudeincreased,
in the experimental trials (pitch-leap accent (cid:1) 7 ST; duration ac- but scores to duple melodies were not modulated by MA magni-
cent (cid:1) 180 ms); that is, melodies were either strongly duple or tude,F(3,57)(cid:1)17.63,(cid:3)2(cid:1).10,p(cid:4).001.Ingeneral,differences
stronglytriple.Responsesweremadeontheseven-buttonbox.Fol- betweenduplemeterandtriplemeterincreasedwithaccentsize.
lowingaresponse,anLEDscreenontheresponseboxdisplayeda If a given accent magnitude has the potential to differentiate
single digit indicating the response that “most people might have duplefromtriplemeter,thenCscoresformelodieswithdupleand
given”: 2 for groups of two and 3 for groups of three. Following triplepatternsshouldbestatisticallydifferent.Weperformedfour
practice,subjectsheardeachofthe32melodiestwiceoverthecourse planned comparisons from within the Accent Pattern (cid:2) Accent
oftheexperiment,withoutfeedback. Magnitudeinteraction(oneforeachlevelofaccentmagnitude)in
METERPERCEPTION 271
Figure3. Experiment1:Signedclarityscore(Cscore)meansasafunctionofaccenttype,accentpattern,andaccent
magnitude.Errorsbarsshowstandarderrors.MA(cid:1)melodicaccent;TA(cid:1)temporalaccent;ST(cid:1)semitone.
bothANOVAs.Thesecomparisonsrevealedthatthethreelargest accountformorethan3%ofthevariance;|C|scoresincreasedwith
MAmagnitudes(3ST,4ST,and5ST)andthethreelargestTA accentmagnituderegardlessofwhetherthoseaccentsappearedin
magnitudes(100ms,120ms,and140ms)allsignificantlydiffer- dupleortripleaccentpatterns.
entiatedduplefromtriplemeter(ps(cid:4).01). One goal of Experiment 1 was to identify comparably salient
Absolute value of C scores. We also analyzed the data in a accentmagnitudes.InspectionofFigure4suggeststhatthe4-and
differentmanner,onthebasisofthefollowinglogic.TheCscore 5-ST pitch-leap accent patterns (left panel) and the 100-ms dura-
scale treats duple and triple meter as polar opposites on a quasi- tionaccentpattern(rightpanel)elicitedsimilarratingsofmetrical
continuous variable. Such a scale, however, may not accurately clarity (|C| score means (cid:5)1.25) in both duple and triple accent
reflect listeners’ decision process. That is, rather than making a patterns.Weconfirmedthisbyperforminga2(accenttype)(cid:2)2
single decision (implied by the C scale), listeners may implicitly (accent pattern) (cid:2) 2 (accent magnitude) ANOVA and a Tukey’s
partitionthistaskintotwosubtasks,thefirstemphasizingcatego- honestlysignificantdifference(HSD)testonthethree-wayinter-
rization(“Isthegroupingpatterndupleortriple?”)andthesecond action. (It was necessary to include accent type as a factor, since
emphasizing perceptual clarity (“How clear is the grouping?”).
Strongmaineffectsforaccentpattern(explaining31%and51%of
the variance of ratings to MA and TA patterns, respectively)
3 3
indicate that subjects were adept at the categorization portion of
Accent Pattern
the decision. To isolate the metrical clarity portion, we took the
DDuuppllee
absolutevalueofasignedclarityscore(|C|).Thisreflectsthefact
Triple
that melodies rated as “C (cid:1) –3” and “C (cid:1) 3” reflect the same y) 2 2
degree of metrical clarity (very strong groups) instantiated by earit
orCl
different accent patterns. Thus, performance on the |C| scale iso- Scal
l4a-tpeosintthescacllea)r,itfyromwitihtscwahteicghorylis(tdeunpelres,tprieprlcee)i,vwedithaamhiegtheerr(socnorea | |CMetricr 1 1
(
indicatinggreaterclarity.
Two 2 (accent pattern) (cid:2) 4 (accent magnitude) ANOVAs were
conductedon|C|scoresforMAmelodiesandTAmelodies.Figure4
0 0
presentsthe combined data as a function of these two factors for
1 2 3 4 5 6 60 80 100 120 140 160
each accent type. A main effect for accent magnitude, with a
MA Magmnaitude (ST) TA Magntiatu de (ms)
stronglinear(lin)trendcomponent,emergedinboththeMA(left
panel) and TA (right panel) melodies, F (1, 27) (cid:1) 36.92, (cid:3)2 (cid:1)
lin Figure 4. Experiment 1: Absolute value of a signed clarity score (|C|
.58, p (cid:4) .001, and Flin(1, 27) (cid:1) 103.55, (cid:3)2 (cid:1) .79, p (cid:4) .001, score) means as a function of accent type, accent pattern, and accent
respectively. Although an Accent Magnitude (cid:2) Accent Pattern magnitude.Errorsbarsshowstandarderrors.MA(cid:1)melodicaccent;TA(cid:1)
interaction was significant in both ANOVAs, in neither did it temporalaccent.
272 ELLISANDJONES
we were interested in comparisons of all data points.) The |C| Table2
scoresforthe4-and5-STMAandthe100-msTAdidnotdiffer NineJointAccentStructuresFormedbyMelodicAccentand
ineitheraccentpattern(ps(cid:6).8). TemporalAccentPatterns
We also conducted an experiment in which accent type was a
between-subjects factor (versus as a within-subjects factor, re- TApattern
portedhere).Thegeneralpatternoffindingswasquitesimilar.
MApattern Duple Neutral Triple
Discussion Triple TMADTA TMANTA TMATTA
Neutral N D N N N T
MA TA MA TA MA TA
Duple D D D N D T
OurmaingoalinExperiment1wastoassessmetricalsalience MA TA MA TA MA TA
as a function of accent type and magnitude. We found that mag-
Note. Jointaccentstructure(JAS)patternsarelabeledinshorthandwith
nitudeincrementsofserialpitchandtimechangesincreasedper- accent period (D (cid:1) duple; N (cid:1) neutral; T (cid:1) triple) subscripted by the
ceived differences between duple and triple meter (C score anal- accenttypeinstantiatingit(MA(cid:1)melodicaccent;TA(cid:1)temporalaccent).
ysis) and enhanced metrical clarity (|C| score analysis). These ConcordantJASsaremarkedinbold;discordantJASsareitalicized.
findingssupporttheaccentsaliencehypothesis.
On the whole, it could be argued that TA patterns conveyed
cordantmelodieswillelicitstronger(andfaster)ratingsofmetrical
moremetricalinformationthanMApatterns,asevidencedbythe
clarity than discordant melodies, due to differences in temporal
larger effect sizes for accent pattern (in C scores) and accent
complexityofthesejointaccentpatterns.InaCscoreanalysis,this
magnitude(in|C|scores)inTAmelodiesthanMAmelodies.Such
shouldresultinmoreextremeratingsforconcordantmelodies(i.e.,
findingswould,onthesurface,appearconsistentwiththeTAbias
closertoeitherendpointofthescale)andmoreneutralratingsfor
hypothesis.Wecautionagainstsuchaninterpretationofthis“main discordant melodies (i.e., closer toward C (cid:1) 0). In a |C| score
effect”ofaccenttype,however,becauseMAandTAmagnitudes
analysis, this should result in higher |C| values for concordant
were chosen a priori; thus, the two magnitudes assigned to the
melodiesandlower|C|valuesfordiscordantmelodies.Similarly,
samelevelinanANOVA(e.g.,140ms,5ST)cannotbedirectly
response times (RTs) should be faster for concordant melodies
compared.Instead,itismoreappropriatetoconcludethatmetrical
than discordant melodies. The TA bias hypothesis, by contrast,
clarity was higher for some TA magnitudes than for some MA
doesnotpredictthatconcordantJASswillfacilitatemeterpercep-
magnitudes,andviceversa.
tion; instead, C scores, |C| scores, and RTs should be similar for
Finally,arelatedgoalinExperiment1wastouncoverMAand
anytwomelodieswiththesameTApatternregardlessoftheMA
TA accents of comparable salience levels. On the basis of the
pattern(e.g.,D D andT D ).
MA TA MA TA
analyses, we selected the 5-ST pitch-leap accent and the 100-ms
Second, the accent salience hypothesis predicts differences in
durationaccentascomparableintheirabilitytoevokemeter.
performancebetweenconcordantJASsandsimpleJASsthathave
the same TA pattern (e.g., D D vs. N D ). According to
MA TA MA TA
Experiment 2: MAs and TAs Combined in Melodies theaccentsaliencehypothesis,metricalclarityandresponsespeed
should increase with the number of co-occurring accent tokens.
Experiment 2 was designed to compare predictions of the JAS Thus, the presence of simultaneous MAs and TAs in concordant
andtemporalbiashypotheses.Thesehypothesesfeaturedifferent melodies(e.g.,D D )shouldimproveperformancerelativeto
MA TA
rolesforMAsinmeter.Toassessthem,wecreatedmelodiesthat
melodieswithTAsonly(e.g.,N D ).TheTAbiashypothesis
MA TA
containedbothMApatternsandTApatternsinordertodetermine
does not predict this difference in performance: the MAs in con-
whetherMAshadanyimpactonperformance,andifso,whether
cordant melodies are irrelevant and should not facilitate
that impact reflected an additive or interactive relationship with
performance.
TAs.WedevelopedasetofnineJASsbyfactoriallycrossingthree
MA patterns with three TA patterns. That is, in addition to the
Method
duple (D) and triple (T) accent patterns used in Experiment 1, a
“neutral”(N)accentpatternwascreated,withaccentlocationson Subjects. Twenty-five OSU undergraduates in psychology
Tones1,7,and13(i.e.,theaccentlocationscommontobothduple participated for course credit. They averaged 3.6 years of formal
and triple accent patterns). This factorial approach is outlined in musical training (SD (cid:1) 2.6; range (cid:1) 0–9) and reported normal
Table 2 in the shorthand notation introduced earlier (metrical hearing.Theywererandomlyassignedtooneoffourpresentation
periodsubscriptedbyaccenttype).InTable2,thetwoconcordant orders(ns(cid:1)6,6,6,and7).
JASs(D D andT T ;cf.Figures2Aand2B)aremarked Apparatus. TheapparatuswasidenticaltothatusedinExper-
MA TA MA TA
inbold,andthetwodiscordantJASs(T D andD T ;cf. iment1.
MA TA MA TA
Figures 2C and 2D) are italicized. Table 2 also illustrates four Stimuliandconditions. Twenty-sevenmelodieswerecreated.
“simple JASs”; these patterns contain either a duple or a triple All retained the same invariant IOI of 500 ms and pitch contour
accentpatterninonedimensionandaneutralaccentpatterninthe used in Experiment 1 melodies. However, in Experiment 2, each
other (D N , T N , N D , N T ). Finally, a “neu- melodyhadbothanembeddedMApatternandanembeddedTA
MA TA MA TA MA TA MA TA
tral JAS” (N N ) contained neutral accent patterns in both pattern (neutral, duple, or triple). The nine possible JASs are
MA TA
dimensions. shown in Table 2. MA patterns were marked by 5-ST pitch-leap
The TA bias hypothesis leads to predictions about meter that accents and TA patterns by 100-ms duration accents. Because a
contrast with those of both the JAS hypothesis and the accent possibleconfoundingofpeakpitchwithaccentmagnitudeisnota
salience hypothesis. First, the JAS hypothesis predicts that con- factor in Experiment 2 melodies (due to a single pitch-leap mag-
METERPERCEPTION 273
nitude),allmelodieswereanchoredbytheirstartingpitch(rather F(2,38)(cid:1)39.38,(cid:3)2(cid:1).17,p(cid:4).001;andtheirinteraction,F(4,
thanbypitchpeakasinExperiment1).Equallyoften,thestarting 76)(cid:1)2.76,(cid:3)2(cid:4).01,p(cid:4).05.TheMAfactoraccountedforthree
pitchwasC4,D#4,orF#4. timesmorevariancethantheTAfactor,suggestingthatwhenboth
Design. The primary design was 3 (cid:2) 3 repeated-measures, MA and TA patterns are present in the same melody, the TA
with factors MA pattern (neutral, duple, triple), and TA pattern patternisnotnecessarilythestrongermetricalmarker.Compared
(neutral,duple,triple). with the main effects, the interaction explained a negligible
Procedure. TheprocedurewasidenticaltothatusedinExper- amountofvariance.
iment 1, with the following exceptions: (a) For each of the four In Figure 5, it is clear that concordant JASs (T T and
MA TA
presentationorders,thetrial-to-trialconstraintswerethatnothree
D D )receivedthemostextremeCscores(1.87and–1.96,
MA TA
consecutivetrialscouldpossessthesamestartingpitch,thesame
respectively),whereasdiscordantJASs(T D andD T )
MA pattern, or the same TA pattern; and (b) All melodies were MA TA MA TA
received less extreme scores (0.19 and –0.94, respectively).
heardthreetimesoverthecourseoftheexperiment.
ThisevidencesupportstheJAShypothesisbutnottheTAbias
Datareductionandanalysis. Datafrom5subjectswhofailed
hypothesis.
(on the basis of their C scores) to follow instructions were ex-
Absolute value of C scores. The |C| scores isolate the clarity
cludedfromfurtheranalysis.2Remainingdatawereanalyzedasin
portion of a listener’s decision from the categorization portion.
previous experiments. RTs were recorded from the onset of the
According to predictions of the JAS hypothesis, concordant JAS
final tone of each melody; all melodies were exactly the same
melodiesshouldelicittheperceptofmeter(DorT)moreclearly
length.BecauseRTdistributionsarepositivelyskewed,afewlong
(i.e.,larger|C|values)thandiscordantJASmelodies.Inaddition,
response times can dramatically alter RT means (Ratcliff, 1993).
the accent salience hypothesis predicts that concordant JAS mel-
To correct for this, we excluded RTs that were more than 2.5
odiesshouldelicitclearermetricalperceptsthancomparablesim-
standarddeviationsawayfromeachsubject’sgrandmeanRT.On
pleJASmelodies.
average,7%ofindividualRTswereexcludedforeachsubject.
First,wesubmitted|C|scorestothesame3(cid:2)3ANOVAused
earlier.Onceagain,MApatternexplainedmorevariancethanTA
Results
pattern, F(2, 38) (cid:1) 16.12, (cid:3)2 (cid:1) .15, p (cid:4) .001; F(2, 38) (cid:1) 7.21,
SignedCscores. WeanalyzedsignedCscoresusinga3(cid:2)3 (cid:3)2 (cid:1) .05, p (cid:4) .005, respectively. Compared with Experiment 1,
ANOVA,withfactorsMAPattern(neutral,duple,triple)andTA however,theamountofexplainedvariancebythetwomaineffects
Pattern(neutral,duple,triple).Figure5presentsCscoremeansas was markedly less. Instead, the MA Pattern (cid:2) TA Pattern inter-
afunctionofthesetwofactors.Significanteffectswerepresentfor action, F(4, 76) (cid:1) 19.73, (cid:3)2 (cid:1).16, p (cid:4) .001, accounted for
MA pattern, F(2, 38) (cid:1) 71.26, (cid:3)2 (cid:1) .51, p (cid:4) .001; TA pattern, substantially more variance in the |C| score ANOVA than the C
scoreANOVA(16%vs.(cid:4)1%).
Next,wedirectlytestedapredictionoftheJAShypothesisthat
3 contrastswiththatoftheTAbiashypothesisbyfocusinguponthe
subsetofconcordantanddiscordantJASs.Withinthissubset,the
MMAAPPattttern
ps of three”uoups of three”o 21 TDNreuipupltleeral TMANTA TMATTA JchlaoAonydnpSMicocohtAahryndepPdasoinasttttehtdmeeJroAspniesSos(cid:2)rspanrltoTehatdAa.cinccTPethfsnaoattgrttserditersrnaiu,stcceiinftorutrtecrdherlaeaasnrciipttstiryoJepAndr(.eiiS.csCeste.,eo,ndnwtl,asdhiritsgeetpsreeehrenaont|sCudwle|tdhnivtecehaymlTtuheoAeerfsg)JbmeAfioaaeSss-r
gro“gr T D N T hypothesis, the 2 (cid:2) 2 design revealed a main effect for neither
“ MA TA MA TA
e factor,Fs(cid:4)1,(cid:3)2s(cid:4).01,butinsteadapronouncedMAPattern(cid:2)
C ScorCS ScoreS neutral”nneutral” 0 NMANTA (TTAhisPastatmerne 2in(cid:2)tera2ctAioNnO, FV(A1,o1n9)C(cid:1)sco6r0e.s5,8b,y(cid:3)2co(cid:1)ntr.a2s9t,,rpes(cid:4)ulte.0d0i1n.
““ N D onlyaslightinteraction,with(cid:3)2(cid:1).01.)Asshownintheleftpanel
MA TA
o”o”-1
ps of tws of tw DMANTA DMATTA the2JBAeScaaucsceoudnatta,cfarroemwtahsistaekxepnertoimeelinmtitneastteedsusbevjeecrtaslwmheoteirncporerrdeiccttliyonusseodf
ououpu--22 the MIDILAB response box, under the following logic. Experiment 1
“grgro DMADTA establishedthatdupleandtripleaccentpatternsconsistentlyelicitedneg-
“
ative and positive C scores, respectively (or, at the very least, scores to
-3 triple-meter patterns that were more positive than scores to duple-meter
Duple Neutral Triple patterns). We reasoned that a subjects’ TMATTA scores should be more
positivethanD D scores,thusT T (cid:7)D D (cid:6)0.Becausetwo
DuratiToAn APcactetenrtn Pattern MA TA MA TA MA TA
adjacentresponsebuttonsare1.0Cscoreunitsapart,thefinalinclusion
criteria was restated as “include if T T (cid:7) D D (cid:1) 1.0.” Five
MA TA MA TA
Figure 5. Experiment 2: Signed clarity score (C score) means as a subjectsfailedtomeetthiscriterion.Intheoriginalsample(n(cid:1)25),the
functionofmelodicaccent(MA)patternandtemporalaccent(TA)pattern meanvalueofT T (cid:7)D D was2.73(SD(cid:1)2.03).Forthereduced
MA TA MA TA
fortheninejointaccentstructures.Errorsbarsshowstandarderrors.T(cid:1) sample(n(cid:1)20),themeanvalueofT T –D D was3.82(SD(cid:1)
MA TA MA TA
triple;N(cid:1)neutral;D(cid:1)duple. 1.04).