Genre-Specific Music Training Gives Rise to Differential Dependencies on Structural Metrics of Sound During Perceptual Judgments
Mentor 1
Adam S. Greenberg
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
5-4-2019 1:30 PM
End Date
5-4-2019 3:30 PM
Description
Acquired expertise has been shown to alter perception. Previous research from our lab has revealed a correlation between differences in auditory object perception and extent of formal music training. Additionally, we have shown that musicians rely upon specific sound features when categorizing objects, whereas non-musicians seemingly use no such strategy. The present experiment explores whether musicians with different training backgrounds (genre) rely upon similar sound features during judgments of musicality. Participants completed a prescreening survey designed to document formal music training and subjective measures of interaction with various musical genres. Subsequently, participants were tested behaviorally while listening to randomly generated pure tone "melodies", by rating the "musicality" of each. The analyses of the data from these perceptual measures showed diverging results—1) Survey results revealed a double-dissociation regarding comfort with deviations from musical notation: Classical musicians are more comfortable with deviations while listening to music, whereas Jazz musicians are more comfortable with deviations while performing. 2) Counter to our prediction, classical and non-classical musicians showed a striking similarity in musicality ratings, suggesting auditory object perception may be surprisingly consistent among formally trained musicians of different genres. A remarkable number of the lowest (50%) and highest (82%) rated melodies were identical for classical and non-classical musicians. 3) Correlations between ratings and six objective metrics of sound features (contour, range, etc.) showed a significant relationship with classical musician ratings, but no relationship with non-classical musician ratings. A Principal Components Analysis revealed significant latent variables within the behavioral data that may better represent perceptual response strategies of genre groups. These results, considered within the context of our previous findings, suggest that judgments of "musicality" may be related to level of training (and are generalizable across genre), but processing of sound feature metrics and notational deviation comfort may be more indicative of genre-specific training.
Genre-Specific Music Training Gives Rise to Differential Dependencies on Structural Metrics of Sound During Perceptual Judgments
Union Wisconsin Room
Acquired expertise has been shown to alter perception. Previous research from our lab has revealed a correlation between differences in auditory object perception and extent of formal music training. Additionally, we have shown that musicians rely upon specific sound features when categorizing objects, whereas non-musicians seemingly use no such strategy. The present experiment explores whether musicians with different training backgrounds (genre) rely upon similar sound features during judgments of musicality. Participants completed a prescreening survey designed to document formal music training and subjective measures of interaction with various musical genres. Subsequently, participants were tested behaviorally while listening to randomly generated pure tone "melodies", by rating the "musicality" of each. The analyses of the data from these perceptual measures showed diverging results—1) Survey results revealed a double-dissociation regarding comfort with deviations from musical notation: Classical musicians are more comfortable with deviations while listening to music, whereas Jazz musicians are more comfortable with deviations while performing. 2) Counter to our prediction, classical and non-classical musicians showed a striking similarity in musicality ratings, suggesting auditory object perception may be surprisingly consistent among formally trained musicians of different genres. A remarkable number of the lowest (50%) and highest (82%) rated melodies were identical for classical and non-classical musicians. 3) Correlations between ratings and six objective metrics of sound features (contour, range, etc.) showed a significant relationship with classical musician ratings, but no relationship with non-classical musician ratings. A Principal Components Analysis revealed significant latent variables within the behavioral data that may better represent perceptual response strategies of genre groups. These results, considered within the context of our previous findings, suggest that judgments of "musicality" may be related to level of training (and are generalizable across genre), but processing of sound feature metrics and notational deviation comfort may be more indicative of genre-specific training.
