Final Lecture 17: March 26

Question 1

wat is Melody:

Answer 1

A sequence of notes or chords perceived as a single coherent structure
Examples: “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” or “Row row row your boat”

Question 2

Melodies can be defined by their what

Answer 2

countours -

Question 3

what are countours

Answer 3

the pattern of rises and declines in pitch – rather than by an exact sequence of sound frequencies

Question 4

can Melodies can change octaves or keys and still be the same melody even if they have completely different notes

Answer 4

yes

Question 5

Music is mostly processed where

Answer 5

in the right auditory cortex.

Question 6

what is Congenital amusia:

Answer 6

Umbrella term for lifelong musical disabilities that cannot be attributed to intellectual disability, lack of exposure, or brain damage after birth

Question 7

On standardised tests, amusics are impaired at detectingwhat

Answer 7

pitch deviations that are smaller than two semitones (ex. difference between D and C).

Question 8

can congenital amuse people report tones that are out-of-key, i.e. that don’t fit with the melody.

Answer 8

That can’t report tones that are out-of-key, i.e. that don’t fit with the melody.

Question 9

what is ERAN

Answer 9

(early right anterior negativity) is a negative event-related potential (ERP) that occurs 200 ms after the detection of a melodic tonal violation

Question 10

what is P600

Answer 10

is a positive event-related potential (ERP) that occurs 600 ms the detection of a melodic tonal violation. It reflects the conscious perception of the tonal violation

Question 11

what is Amusics ERAN and P600

Answer 11

have normal ERANs, but have no P600, which suggests that they lack conscious access to processed pitch deviances, i.e. they are «in-tune» but «unaware»

Question 12

what is Absolute Pitch:

Answer 12

a rare ability whereby some people are able to very
accurately name or produce notes without comparison to other notes.
-> recent studies suggest it is ~ 1/1500.

Question 13

is Absolute Pitch hereditary

Answer 13

Concordance rate for AP is higher in monozygotic twin pairs vs. Dizygotic twin pairs (i.e. AP is heritable), suggesting that genetic factors contribute to AP.

Question 14

what is Tempo:

Answer 14

The perceived speed of the presentation of sounds.

Question 15

what is Rhythm:

Answer 15

repeated pattern of sounds in time.

- other activities such as walking, dancing, etc… have rhythm.
- rhythm is what allows us to sing all at the same time (together).

Question 16

One way to influence the rhythm is to do what

Answer 16

by putting a «stress» on certain beats (e.g. every 3 or 4 beats).

Question 17

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) – Critique of pure reason 
why does he think we should study perception

Answer 17

Attempt to reconcile rationalism with empiricism.

We may never really know the thing-in-itself (Noumenon)

All we can know is the impression that the noumenon exerts on our senses (Phenoumenon).

Our minds have to contribute innate knowledge in order to make sense of our sensations (space, time, cause and effect).

Perception is extremely rich and reliable and allows us to interact optimally with our environment.

Such perception could not have arisen in an environment completely at odds with our sensations (i.e. there has to be an external reality with objects located in space and time and interacting with each other in a cause-and-effects manner).

Question 18

What is time

Answer 18

Time is the indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future.

Question 19

what dimensions time

Answer 19

Fourth dimension (in addition to the three spatial dimensions).

Question 20

Time is «What the clock reads» - can it be reduced

Answer 20

Time is «What the clock reads» - it can’t be reduced to anything else!

Question 21

Estimation error increases in proportion to what

Answer 21

to the target interval

Question 22

The ratio of error/mean is a____

Answer 22

constant

Question 23

Does time perception agrees with Weber?

Answer 23

Estimation error increases in proportion to the target interval

The ratio of error/mean is a constant

This adhere’s to Weber’s law
-> error is related to JND (if you are JNDs are a constant fraction of the standard

Question 24

what are the Effects of dopamine

on time

Answer 24

Participants are trained to reproduce 7 s or 17 s intervals.

Then they receive amphetamines (dopamine agonists), haloperidol (dopamine antagonist), or an inert substance (placebo).

Dopamine reduces reproduction time, suggesting that it speeds up the internal clock.

Question 25

what are the Effects of attention

on time

Answer 25

When attention is low some «counts» are lost and don’t make it into the accumulator.

Question 26

what are the Effects of emotional arousal

on time

Answer 26

Aversive emotions speed up the clock

• Lights paired with an aversive sound are perceived as longer.

Intervals are perceived as longer after seeing frightening films than neutral films .

Question 27

how was Effects of emotional arousal

on time tested

Answer 27

Temporal bisection procedure: Participants first encode a short (ex.:400ms) and long (ex.: 800ms) duration interval. Then, they are shown different intervals (between 400ms and 800ms) and have to decide if they are closer to the short or long targets.

Question 28

does Depression slows down the clock or speed it up

Answer 28

Depression slows down the clock

Depressed individuals perceive intervals as shorters

Question 29

give a summary of the Dopamine experiment and time

Answer 29

1) you listen to a tone of a certain duration (say 7 s)…..what you encode is an arbitrary number of “time units” generated by your internal clock at its normal pace (say 7 sec equals 70 time units).
2) then you take amphetamines - they make your clock go faster, say twice as fast.
3) you are asked to reproduce the duration, when you do that, you end up accumulating 70 time units in 3.5 seconds - your reproduction therefore last 3.5 seconds (instead of 7 seconds).

Question 30

give a summary of Temporal Bisection experiment:

Answer 30

1) you encode a short (say 1 sec = 10 time units) and a long duration (say 10 sec = 100 time units)
2) you are presented with a duration of 4 sec. your clock is at the same speed as during encoding. 4s = 40 time units, you say it is closer to the short
3) you look at a frightening film - this makes your clock go twice as fast
4) you are presented with a duration of 4 sec again, but this time you accumulate 80 time units in 4s, you say it is closer to the long.