Music Cognition Handbook: A Dictionary of Concepts
By David Huron

(AP) The name given by psychologists to the phenomenon musicians call perfect pitch. The ability found in a minority of listeners, where the pitch of a tone can be accurately identified without relying on an external reference pitch. See also pitch, Hick-Hyman Law, colored hearing.

Pertaining to the objective physics of sound. Used in contrast to auditory -- which pertains to the subjective experience of a sound. For example, frequency is a physical or acoustical property, whereas pitch is a subjective or auditory property.

The time of the day when an individual is typically at his/her greatest arousal or energy level. Introverts tend to reach acrophase earlier in the day than is the case for extroverts (Thayer, 1996; p.16). See also arousal, arousal compatibility preference, personality.

The condition where a person willfully directs their mental consideration at some stimulus. Also known as "endogenous attention." In contrast to passive attention, active attention is voluntary. See also attention. Compare with arousal.

See epinephrine.

Nerves that convey signals to the brain from various parts of the body. Afferent nerves communicate sensory and proprioceptive information such as pain, pressure, taste, sound, sight, etc. to the brain. Contrasts with efferent nerves.

A neurological disorder which causes a partial or complete loss of the ability to recognize otherwise familiar stimuli. Auditory agnosia is an inability to recognize sounds. See also agraphia, amusia, anomia, alexia, aphasia, aprosodia.

A neurological disorder which causes a partial or complete loss of a former ability to write. Loss of the ability to notate music is known as musical agraphia. See also agnosia, alexia, amusia, anomia, aphasia, aprosodia.

See depressants.

A neurological disorder which causes a partial or complete loss of a former ability to read. Loss of the ability to read music is known as musical alexia. See also agnosia, agraphia, amusia, anomia, aphasia, aprosodia.

Allusive listening is a presumed listening mode that may be said to occur where a listener relates moments or features of the music to similar moments or features in other musical works. (`This reminds me of a passage in Bartók ...'). Allusive listening may be viewed as a form of referential listening in which the referential connection is made to the domain of music itself. Philip Tagg (1979) has made extensive use of allusive listening as a tool for studying musical meaning. Tagg has suggested that a dictionary is indeed a reasonable model of meaning -- where a target word is understood in terms of a set of synomyns. Tagg has, in effect, created musical "dictionaries" by asking listeners to construct lists of musical works of which a given work reminds them. See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

See amplitude modulation.

See stimulants.

The magnitude or strength of a signal. Amplitude is the degree of excursion about an average or equilibrium value exhibited by some oscillating quantity. For a vibrating object, amplitude may be expressed in terms of the velocity of the object in space, or the pressure it exerts, or other physical quantity. Amplitude is commonly measured by one of three methods: (1) the difference between the maximum excursion and the equilibrium point ("peak amplitude"), (2) the difference between the maximum positive and maximum negative points of excursion ("peak-to-peak amplitude"), and (3) the standard deviation of all values ("RMS amplitude"). For signals of audible frequency, amplitude corresponds roughly with our perception of loudness. See also amplitude modulation.

(AM). The varying of the amplitude of a signal, usually repetitively. For signals of audible frequency, amplitude modulations in the range of 1 Hz to ~15 Hz evoke a tremolo effect. See also shimmer.

A general term referring to any neurological disorder which interferes with musical functioning. Amusias might include musical alexia (lost ability to read music), musical agraphia (lost ability to notate music), musical anomia (lost ability to name works, composers, styles, etc.), and so on.

The tendency to interpret a stimulus as a variant of a prototype. Eleanor Rosch (1975) showed that a line tilted 10 degrees to the horizontal is perceived to be similar to a horizontal line. The tilted line is mentally encoded as a slight variant of the prototypic horizontal line.

The effect of anchoring has been demonstrated in melodies by Bharucha (1984). Recall that Krumhansl and Kessler found that, in a given key context, the most stable tone is the tonic, followed by the other tones of the tonic triad, followed by the remaining scale tones, followed by the non-scale tones. In the perception of melodies, less stable tones tend to become anchored to more stable tones that are close in pitch. For example, in the key of C major, the pitch D has a tendency to be anchored to either the neighboring C or E. Similarly, the pitch D# has a tendency to be anchored to the neared more stable pitch E. See also prototype, schema, focal stimulus, tonal hierarchy.

A neurological disorder which causes a marked inability to name otherwise familiar stimuli. Auditory anomia is an inability to name sounds -- such as identifying the sound of a door bell or passing automobiles. Examples of musical anomias might include a lost former ability to name musical works or styles, or the inability to name musical instruments from their sounds. See also agnosia, alexia.

See depressants.

A mental state of stress. Anxiety is associated with high cortisol levels in the blood. Behaviors include trembling, fidgeting, perspiring, fast respiration, higher pulse rate and higher blood pressure. An experiment carried out by Muzak Corporation at St. Joseph's Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska showed that sedative music can significantly reduce anxiety. See also arousal, Thayer's model of moods.

A general term referring to any neurological disorder which causes a complete or partial loss of language-related abilities. Loss of the ability to speak is referred to as expressive aphasia. Loss of the ability to understand spoken language is referred to as receptive aphasia. See also agnosia, agraphia, alexia, amusia, anomia, aprosodia.

A neurological disorder which causes a complete or partial loss of prosodic elements of speech production or reception. Prosodic elements of speech include pitch inflections and other features that indicate emotional tone -- such as anger, contempt, joy, parody, etc. Loss of the ability to speak with appropriate prosodic cues is referred to as expressive aprosodia. Loss of the ability to understand prosodic cues in spoken language is referred to as receptive aprosodia. See also agnosia, agraphia, alexia, amusia, anomia, aphasia.

An individual's general metabolic readiness to perceive and act. Increased arousal is associated with increased heart rate, increased body temperature, increased rate of breathing, increased oxygen consumption, increased glucose uptake, faster reaction times, and many other physiological changes. Different levels of arousal are most evident in the contrast between the states of sleep and wakefulness. See also acrophase, tonic arousal, phasic arousal, lullaby, stimulants, depressants, epinephrine, norepinephrine.

Listeners tend to prefer music that matches their pre-existing arousal level. When asleep, for example, most people have a low tolerance for music, especially when the music has a high level of stimulation. Conversely, when in a highly aroused state, most listeners find sedate music to be uninteresting or inappropriate. When engaged in aerobic exercise, for example, listeners show a strong aversion against sedate music -- even if the tempo of the music matches the pace of the workout. With increasing age, people often show an increased preference for sedate music. See also arousal, acrophase, tonic arousal, phasic arousal, stimulants, depressants.

A simple form of memory that is established due to the co-occurrence of two stimuli or events. In the case of music, it is common for people to form personal associations between some particular musical work with a specific past circumstance where the work was first (or frequently) encountered. Associative memories may be entirely arbitrary. For example, a "happy" musical work might be associated with memories of a dangerous or life-threatening event. Conversely, a sedate musical work might be associated with memories of an exciting or thrilling event.

Associative memory is sometimes modelled using so-called connectionist networks. See also memory, priming.

The mental state of focusing on some stimulus. Sounds often signal changes in the environment, and so selectively attending to certain sounds can be an important strategy for survival. Psychologists distinguish voluntary and involuntary modes attention -- called active attention and passive attention, respectively. Attention is often signalled by an orienting response. See also dishabituation. Compare with arousal.

To lessen; especially to lessen the amplitude of a signal. When audio signals are attenuated, typically a decrease in loudness occurs. However, attenuation need not always affect loudness -- for example, the attenuation of a vibrato will result in a lessening of the "depth" of the vibrato.

Any frequency audible to the human ear. The range of audio frequencies is usually considered to lie in the region between 20 hertz and 20,000 hertz. However, the specific range of audio frequencies varies considerably from person to person -- varying especially with respect to age. See also frequency.

Pertaining to the subjective experience of sound. Used in contrast to acoustical -- which pertains to the objective physics of a sound. For example, frequency is a physical or acoustical property, whereas pitch is a subjective or auditory property. See primary auditory phenomena.

When an isolated sound is heard, millions of neurons in the auditory cortex are activated. The near simultaneous firing of large numbers of neurons induces electrical potentials that can be measured with electrodes on the scalp. Auditory signals typically activate regions of the temporal lobes -- located just above the ears. Because the resulting electroencephalographs arise in response to a single sound, they are referred to as auditory evoked potentials or auditory evoked responses. See also P3, P300.

The subjective impression of a continuing sound, even though the sound is entirely absent.

When a pure tone is alternated with broad-band noise, the tone will appear as a continuous background tone with the noise overlayed. This phenomenon is analogous to the "picket fence" illusion in vision. That is, if two visual patterns are interleaved, there is a tendency for one pattern to appear to be an intermittent foreground (picket fence) and the other pattern to appear as a continuous background (what's behind the fence).

In ideal circumstances, auditory induction has been measured for as long as 30 seconds. That is, a listener has continued to perceive an absent tone as persisting for half a minute. See also auditory streaming.

The subjective sense of connectedness -- where two or more successive sounds appear to arise from the same sound-generating source. See also stream, primary auditory phenomena.

See masking.

See depressants.

Pertaining to two ears, as in the binaural presentation of musical stimuli to a listener. Contrasts with monaural. See also monaural, diotic, dichotic. monophonic, stereophonic.

A momentary decrease in heart-rate followed by a recovery of the heart-rate -- commonly evoked by some stimulus. Bradycardic changes of heart-rate are associated with interest and attending to a stimulus. See also orienting response, attention, heart rate, personality. Compare tachycardia.

A neurological disorder which causes a complete or partial loss of the ability to speak. Also known as expressive aphasia. Contrast with receptive aphasia. See also agnosia, agraphia, alexia, amusia, anomia, aphasia, aprosodia.

Burris-Meyer and Cardinell carried out a series of studies to determine how fatigue varies over a typical workday. They measured variations in worker output from hour to hour and also determined what points in the workday employees perceive as passing most quickly or most slowly. They found that workers are typically most efficient shortly after they begin work in the morning. As the morning progresses, efficiency tends to fall, reaching a low point shortly after mid-morning. As lunch-time approaches, there is a gradual increase in productivity. Burris-Meyer and Cardinell hypothesized that this increase may arise due to efforts to complete tasks before lunch.

Productivity in the second half of the day shows a similar fall and then up-swing toward quitting time. However, the overall efficiency in the afternoon tends to be lower than for the morning.

In Muzak for workplaces, the stimulus level of the music changes over the course of the day to compensate for the Burris-Meyer and Cardinell fatigue curves. Specifically, the stimulus level of the music increases during those parts of the day when efficiency is typically lowest.

An illustration of how the perception of tonality can be influenced by rearranging an inventory of pitches. The diads F-B followed by E-C evokes a strong C major tonality. Whereas the diads E-B followed by F-C tend to evoke either an F major or E minor tonality. Contrast with Krumansl and Kessler key profiles.

See stimulants.

A common non-prescription or "recreational" depressant drug found in marijuana and hashish. Cannabis is sometimes incorrectly classified as a hallucinogen. However, it's capacity to induce halluncinations is low -- comparable to alcohol (Diaz, 1997; p.200). See depressants.

A general increased the diameter of the blood vessels in the brain -- often as part of the orienting response.

Unit of pitch distance (or interval) corresponding to 1/100th of a semitone. A unit of measure introduced in the late 19th century by Alexander Ellis, and frequently used in studies of non-Western music. There are 1200 cents in an octave). One cent corresponds to a frequency ratio of the 1200th root of 2.

See pitch chroma.

The tendency, exhibited by absolute pitch posessors, for tones above about 4 kHz to all evoke the same pitch chroma or pitch-class sensation (see Bachem, 1948; Ward, 1954; Burns, 199). See also pitch salience.

When the duration of a sound is less than a time threshold (about 20 milliseconds) required for pitch recognition, the sound is heard as a click rather than a tone.

The experience of completion or finality. Points of closure typically occur at the ends of works, with lesser points of closure occuring at phrase boundaries. In speech, the closure of spoken phrases is known to be influenced by five factors: (1) the presence of a silent pause at the phrase boundary, (2) lengthening of the final stressed syllable, (3) a drop in amplitude, (4) phrase-final descending pitch, and (5) stress-rate slowing as the phrase boundary is approached. See also tonal closure, tonality.

The snail-shaped bone-encased fluid-filled organ of hearing. Anatomically, the cochlea is regarded as the inner ear. The cochlea receives vibrations conveyed from the timpanic membrane via the small bones of the middle ear. The last of these bones is connected to the oval window of the cochlea. Sound-induced vibrations are communicated to fluid in a tube-shaped chamber that is coiled to make 2 and one-half rotations. Motions of this fluid cause interior membranes (the tectorial and basilar membranes) to be displaced. Hair cells imbedded in these membranes are activated and the resulting neural impulses are communicated to the auditory nerve which exits from the cochlea. The cochlea is roughly the size of the tip of one's little finger. See also outer ear, middle ear, inner ear, pinna, basilar membrane.

The processes of human or animal thought. The acquisition, understanding, representation and manipulation of knowledge. See also cognitive science, sensation, perception.

A term coined by Pylyshyn to denote the degree to which a cognitive process can be consciously influenced. A cognitive process is deemed to have low cognitive pentrability if it is unresponsive to expectation or conscious thought. See also introspection.

A common designation for the shift in popularity during the 1960s away from behaviorism toward cognitive psychology and cognitive science. See cognition.

The study of thought processes in animals (including humans) and machines. A broad field of cognitive research that often emphasizes computational and mathematical modeling. See cognition.

A way of problem-solving or thinking. A distinctive intellectual or perceptual/cognitive approach that is characteristic or preferred by a given individual. Different cognitive styles are thought to exist for mental mathematical calculation. In addition, it is thought that different listening styles exist. See also listening mode.

A form of hearing where particular tones, chords, or keys are associated with specific colors. Colored hearing may arise due to strong associations arising from childhood co-exposure to particular stimuli. Such forms of colored hearing are often associated with absolute pitch. Alternatively, colored hearing may arise due to a neurological condition called synesthesia.

The term "complex tone" is used to identify tones consisting of more than one pure frequency component. Often the component frequencies (called partials) of a complex tone are related harmonically, but many times they are not. Occasionally complex tones will produce the sensation of more than one pitch. Whether a tone is recognized as being a single complex tone or a group of simple sine tones is in part dependent on the auditory context, as well as the experience, ability and attitude of the listener. Virtually all naturally occuring tones are complex. Contrast with sine tone.

See pseudo-polyphony.

The subjective experience of pleasantness, euphoniousness, smoothness, fusion, or relaxedness evoked by sounds.

The subject of consonance and dissonance has a long history and many theories have been advanced. Some theories relate dissonance to cultural conditioning. Other theories relate dissonance to musical context. At least eleven classes of theories of consonance/dissonance can be defined. These include: (1) frequency ratio theory, (2) harmonic relationship theory, (3) temporal dissonance theory, (4) difference tones theory, (5) tonal fusion theory, (6) tonotopic theory (see sensory dissonance), (7) virtual pitch theory, (8) expectation theory, (9) interval category theory, (10) absolute pitch category theory, and (11) stream incoherence theory. Further information is available on these theories.

Most theories regard consonance as merely the absence of dissonance. Other theories posit consonance and dissonance as distinct phenemona. See also dissonance, sensory dissonance, tonal fusion.

The anatomical arrangement by which some nerves originating on one side of the body are connected to the cerebral hemisphere on the opposite side of the body. For example, nerves which connect the left ear (left cochlea) to the right hemisphere of the brain are said to be contralaterally connected. Contrasts with ipsilateral.

Anatomical term designating the convoluted or wrinkled surface region of the brain (from the Latin word for the "bark" of a tree). A living brain has a light red-brown color; however, after death the color changes to gray. This color continues until a depth of about an eighth of an inch -- where it changes to white. The surface (historically called "gray matter") constitutes the cerebral cortex. The gray matter coincides with a large mass of nerve cell bodies, while the underlying "white matter" coincides with long axon fibers emanating from the cell bodies in the gray matter. In evolutionary terms, the cortex is the most recent addition to human brains. Much of the higher-level mental functioning of the brain has been traced to cortical locations.

The cortex is divided into left and right cerebral hemispheres. Four subdivisions or lobes can be identified in each hemisphere: the frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes.

The neural activity of the cortex can be measured using techniques such as electroencephalography. See also subcortical.

A hormone whose presence is associated with stress. See also anxiety, Thayer's model of moods.

A frequency region within which tones interact. There are many forms of such interaction, but the most common is masking where the sounds tend to obscure each other. A common way to define the critical band is the smallest distance beyond which masking no longer occurs. This distance corresponds to roughly 1 millimeter distance along the basilar membrane of the cochlea.

In musical terms, critical bands are roughly a minor third in size in the vicinity of middle C and above. In log frequency terms, critical bands get larger as the register descends below middle C. The following notation indicates the approximate size of critical bands according to tessitura. It is important to understand that the notated pitches represent pure tones rather than complex tones. As pure tones, each tone activates a region of the basilar membrane roughly one millimeter distant from the neighboring tones. From Huron (2001).

Retailers typically try to reduce the amount of physical space required for their business by moving the aisles closer together and raising the heights of the shelves. However, these actions cause consumers to feel unduly crowded. Three factors have been identified as influencing the perceptions of crowding in retail environments. These include (1) aisle width and height, (2) temperature, and (3) noise level. An environment is perceived to be crowded when the aisles are tall and close together, when the temperature is high, and when there is a lot of noise present. Marketing researchers have found that music provides a useful means for masking speech and footfall sounds that customer's associate with crowding. See masking, functional music.

The action of a vibrating system such that its pattern of change passes through a complete turn of events. The elapsed time for the completion of one cycle is called the period. The number of cycles occuring in one second is called the frequency.

The number of complete repetitions or occurrences in one second. See hertz, see also frequency, cycle,

One-tenth of a bel. The unit of sound level expressed as the logarithm (base-10) of the ratio of two quantities proportional to power.

The tendency in speech for the pitch of a speaker's voice to drop over the course of a phrase or sentence ('t Hart, Collier & Cohen, 1990). This general pitch decline is associated with the reduction of subglottal air pressure as the lungs are exhausted (Cranen & Boves, 1985; Gelfer, Harris & Baer, 1987).

Some evidence exists showing that there is a weak tendency for musical phrases to also exhibit a slight decline in average pitch over the course of the phrase. See also melodic arch.

A group of drugs that reduce inhibitions and that generally lower metabolic arousal. The most common depressants include alcohol, barbiturates, cannabis (marijuana and hashish) and antihistamines. Depressants tend to increase a listener's receptiveness to emotions evoked by music. Moderate consumption of alcohol tends to increase the likelihood that an individual will engage in dancing or will sing along with the music. Continued alcohol consumption will tend to increase the likelihood of experiencing nostalgia or sadness. The caricature of the weeping drunk singing a familiar song is not inaccurate. See also stimulants, arousal, epinephrine, synesthesia.

When listening to Shepards tones, the interval of the tritone is theoretically ambiguous as to whether it is heard ascending or descending. Diana Deutsch discovered that for many listeners, certain tritones tend to be heard as predominantly ascending and others as descending. For example, a listener might hear the D-G# tritone as ascending, while hearing the F-B tritone as descending. Such listeners can be characterized by the position on the chroma circle where the tritone is heard to switch direction.

Curiously, Deutsch discovered that the position of switching in the chroma circle appears to be related to the cultural background of the listener. This effect has been replicated by Bruno Repp with American, British, and Dutch listeners.

The Deutsch Tritone Effect can be accounted for by Terhardt's model of pitch perception. Terhardt argues that pitch perceptions are learned due to exposure to complex harmonic tones. The spectral dominance region for different listeners will depend on their past listening experiences (especially during infancy). Since vowels in different cultures differ in their harmonic content, the spectral dominance region may be expected to shift according to the listener's cultural background.

See also Shepards tone, Shepards illusion, octave-spaced tones, pitch height, pitch chroma.

Different sounds presented to separate ears simultaneously, as in the dichotic presentation of musical stimuli to a listener. Contrasts with diotic. See also monaural. binaural, diotic, monophonic, stereophonic.

The identical sound presented to both ears simultaneously, as in the diotic presentation of musical stimuli to a listener. Contrasts with dichotic. See also monaural. binaural, dichotic, monophonic, stereophonic.

A presumed listening mode. Directed listening entails a form of selective attention to one element of a complex texture; the listener purposely excludes or ignores other aspects of the music. For example, the auditor may attend to a single instrument for a short or prolonged period of time. Directed listening may ensue as a result of a listener's special interest, or may result from suggestions made by others. When a listener is concurrently viewing a notated score, it is possible that a visual attraction or interest in a particular aspect of a score may cause the listener to selectively attend to the corresponding sounds. The well-known Norton Scores use a highlighting method to draw attention to various parts in orchestral scores. These scores thus dispose listeners to adopt a directed listening mode. See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

The phenomenon of re-attending or re-orienting to a stimulus after having habituated to a similar stimulus. In auditory research, habituation typically occurs following several repetitions of the same sound. An ensuing presentation of the stimulus may involve some change to the sound. If the sound is sufficiently changed, the listener may to respond to the sound in a way that indicates the extinguishing of habituation. Typically, dishabituation is indicated by the occurrence of an orienting response or a fear or defense reflex. See also dishabituation paradigm. Contrast with spontaneous recovery.

A technique used in perceptual research to determine whether a subject hears two stimuli as the same or different. Experiments employing a dishabituation paradigm typically repeat a stimulus until the subject becomes habituated to it. When habituation is complete then a new stimulus is introduced. If the new stimulus is perceived as the same (or similar) to the preceding stimuli then the subject will show no dishabituation. Conversely, if the new stimulus is perceived to differ from the preceding stimuli then the subject will show evidence of dishabituation or orienting to the stimulus.

The dishabituation paradigm is typically used when studying pre-verbal infants or non-human animals. The paradigm is less commonly used among adults since adults can verbally report perceived similarity or difference. See also attention, passive attention, orienting response, habituation, dishabituation, heart rate, tachycardia, bradycardia, P3.

The subjective experience of unpleasantness, ugliness, disphonia, roughness, or tenseness evoked by sounds.

The subject of consonance and dissonance has a long history and many theories have been advanced. Some theories relate dissonance to cultural conditioning. Other theories relate dissonance to musical context. A popular theory (known as sensory dissonance) relates dissonance to responses in the peripheral auditory system.

Most theories regard consonance as merely the absence of dissonance. Other theories posit consonance and dissonance as distinct phenemona. See also consonance, primary auditory phenomena.

In music theory, the intervals of the major and minor second, the major and minor seventh, and the tritone, plus their compound equivalents (major and minor ninths, etc.).

Dissonances typically exhibit low tonal fusion and high sensory dissonance. See also consonance, perfect consonances, mperfect consonances, tonal fusion.

The long-range reason for something. See also proximate cause, medial cause.

A presumed listening mode that is characterized by an ongoing iterative recapitulation of the music up to the current moment in the work. As the music unfolds, the listener attempts to thread together past events and to build a complete scenario or over-view of the entire work. The distance listener is apt to make mental notes of the advent of new "sections" in the work. Distance listening may be likened to the task of memorizing a list of words. Beginning with a few words, the memorized words are iteratively repeated, each time adding a new word to the memorized list. See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

A presumed listening mode where the listener pays no conscious attention whatsoever to the music. Typically the listener is occupied with other tasks, and may even be unaware of the existence of the music. See tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

A sustained or repeated pitch that tends to sound continuously in the background. Drone tones are typically lower in pitch than other pitches used in the music. The choice of a drone pitch is thought to be influenced by consonance and dissonance. See also finalis, most common pitch, tonic, dissonance.

See timpanic membrane.

A presumed listening mode. The term `ecstatic listening' is meant here in a very concrete and technical way. On occasion music will elicit a sensation of "shivers" localized in the back, neck and shoulders of an aroused listener -- a physiological response technically called frisson. The frisson experience normally has a duration of no more than four or five seconds. It begins as a flexing of the skin in the lower back, rising upward, inward from the shoulders, up the neck, and sometimes across to the cheeks and onto the scalp. The face may become flush, hair follicles flex the hairs into standing position, and goose bumps may appear (piloerection). Frequently, a series of `waves' will rise up the back in rapid succession. The listener feels the music to have elicited an ecstatic moment and tends to regard the experience as involuntary. Goldstein (1980) has shown that some listeners report reduced excitement when under a clinically-administered dose of an opiate receptor antagonist, naloxone -- suggesting that music engenders endogenous opioid peptides characteristic of pleasurable experiences. Sloboda (1991) has found evidence linking "shivers" responses to works especially loved by subjects. See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

Nerves that convey signals from the brain to various parts of the body. Efferent nerves communicate motor commands to muscles and also cause glands to generate and release various substances. The cochlea maintains both afferent and efferent connections to the brain. Contrasts with afferent nerves.

The recording of electrical changes in the brain as measured on the surface of the scalp. The recordings themselves are referred to as electroencelphalograms. See also cortex, orienting response, auditory evoked potential, P3, P300, electromyography.

The recording of electrical changes in muscles as measured on the surface of the skin. See also orienting response, electroencephalography.

A presumed listening mode where the listening experience is characterized by deeply felt emotion. The music engenders feels of sorrow or joy, resignation, great satisfaction. Occasionally there will be overt signs of emotion, such as the sensation of a lump in one's throat, imminent or overt weeping, or smiling. The emotions may be related to current events in the listener's life, but the feelings are more apt to seem non-specific and to arise `from nowhere'. See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

Related to knowledge from observation. See also induction.

See active attention.

A hormone released by the adrenal glands (located above the kidneys) associated with increased arousal. Epinephrine is dispersed throughout the body (including the brain). It causes the heart rate to increase and muscles to tense in preparation for physical exertion ("sympathetic response"). Commonly released as part of the fight-or-flight response. See also arousal, norepinephrine, Thayer's model of moods.

Memory pertaining to past events. Examples of episodic memory might include recalling what you heard on the radio yesterday, or recalling a quarrel with your music teacher in the ninth grade. See also memory, echoic memory.

Any set of discrete pitches in which the interval of an octave is divided into a whole number of equal divisions. In traditional Western-European practice, an equally tempered system employing twelve intervals (called semitones) is used.

A formal method used in empirical research.

See passive attention.

A neurological disorder which causes a complete or partial loss of the ability to speak. Also known as Broca's aphasia. Contrast with receptive aphasia. See also agnosia, agraphia, alexia, amusia, anomia, aphasia, aprosodia.

A neurological disorder which causes a complete or partial loss of the ability to speak with appropriate prosodic cues. Prosodic elements of speech include pitch inflections and other features that indicate emotional tone -- such as anger, contempt, joy, parody, etc. Contrast with receptive aprosodia. See also agnosia, agraphia, alexia, amusia, anomia, aphasia.

The process of observing the behavior of others. Compare introspection.

A presumed listening mode that arises when the listener is mentally keeping a leger of faults or problems. A high-fidelity buff may note problems in sound reproduction. A conservatory teacher may note mistakes in execution, problems of intonation, ensemble balance, phrasing, etc. A composer is apt to identify what might be considered lapses of skill or instances of poor musical judgment.

Fault listening tends to be adopted as a strategy under three circumstances: (1) where an obvious fault has occurred, the listener switches from a previous listening mode and becomes vigilant for the occurrence of more faults (this is a type of signal listening); (2) where the role of the listener is necessarily critical -- as in tutors, conductors, or music critics; or (3) where the listener has some a priori reason to mistrust the skill or integrity of the composer, performer, conductor, audio system, etc. See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

A presumed listening mode that is is characterized by the listener's disposition to identify major "features" that occur in the work -- such as motifs, distinctive rhythms, instrumentation, etc. The listener identifies the recurrence of such features, and also identifies the evolutions or changes which the features undergo. The "feature listening" mode may be considered superficially to be a creative union of two other listening modes: retentive listening (identification and remembrance of features), and signal listening (recognition of previously occurring features). See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

1. The pitch that ends a melody or piece. 2. The pitch that most frequently terminates the phrases of a melody or piece. Compare tonic, drone, most common pitch.

The epitome of a prototype. A focal stimulus is the single best examplar of something. Levitin (1996) has shown that possessors of absolute pitch do not perceive pitches categorically. When asked: what is the best A4, AP-possessors will judge a frequency of 440 Hz as better than 435 Hz or 445 Hz. As the frequency of the stimulus more closely approaches 440 Hz, AP-possessors judge the tone as "a better `A'". Focal stimuli are "ideal" examples of something.

See also prototype.

See masking.

Rate of occurrence or rate or repetition. Frequency is measured in hertz (abbreviated Hz), where one hertz is defined as a single cycle per second. Frequencies which are audible to the human ear (frequencies roughly between about 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz) are often called audio frequencies. Compare pitch.

An experience, commonly associated with especially moving or ecstatic listening moments, where a sensation of "shivers" occurs. The frisson experience begins as a flexing of the skin in the lower back, rising upward, inward from the shoulders, up the neck, and sometimes across to the cheeks and onto the scalp. The face may become flush, hair follicles flex the hairs into standing position, and goose bumps may appear (piloerection). Frequently, a series of `waves' will rise up the back in rapid succession. The experience lasts no more than four or five seconds. The listener feels the music to have elicited an ecstatic moment and tends to regard the experience as involuntary. See also ecstatic listening, topical behaviors.

A generic name given to commercial closed-circuit or restricted-broadcast music whose purpose is to achieve specific goals, such as enhancing worker productivity in office and industrial establishments. The best-know functional music is Muzak -- a Seattle-based company founded in 1936. Other providers of commercial functional music include Rowe International, Ditchburn, Tape-Athon, Magnetronics, Audio Environments, Yesco and the 3M Corporation.

Functional music has been designed to increase worker productivity; to reduce anxiety in elevators, hospitals, and aircraft; to mask noises and contribute to a pleasant atmosphere in retail and restaurant environments. There are even special functional music programs intended to be used in stables in order to calm race horses. See also crowding perceptions, Muzak for workplaces.

The principal frequency component of a complex harmonic or pseudo-harmonic tone; the basic cycle of repetition for a periodic waveform. The fundamental frequency is common (though not always) associated with the perceived pitch of a tone.

A proposed psychological tendency for listeners to expect a missing scale tone to be played, especially when a large leap skips over the missing pitch. For example, a hypothetical pitch sequence A-C is thought to cause the listener to expect the skipped pitch (B) to appear soon. The concept of "gap fill" was proposed by Leonard Meyer in Emotion and Meaning in Music (1956). Contrast with registral return.

Any behavior that entails movement or change of body posture. Examples of gross behaviors associated with music would include playing an instrument, going to a concert, toe-tapping, shifting body posture, and notating music. Compare metabolic behavior, and verbal behavior.

The process of decreasing responsiveness to a recurring stimulus. The simplest form of learning. Habituation is known to depend on four factors: (1) the rate of stimulus repetition, (2) the regularity of repetition, (3) the magnitude of the stimulus, and (4) the history of past cycles of habituation and spontaneous recovery. See also dishabituation, dishabituation paradigm.

(Adjective:) The relationship between two frequencies such that one frequency is an integer multiple of the other (e.g., the frequencies 101 Hz and 303 Hz are harmonically related since 101 x 3 = 303).

(Noun:) Harmonically-related (or nearly harmonically related) frequencies are called harmonics. Harmonics are of special interest because of some unique auditory properties. Many natural vibrators oscillate such that they produce several harmonics simultaneously. For example, if the first harmonic (or fundamental) of some complex tone is of frequency 200 Hz, subsequent harmonics might be of frequencies 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200 Hz, etc. -- called the harmonic series. Compare inharmonic, pseudo-harmonic.

Any numerical sequence of ascending frequencies where successive numbers are integral multiples or share a large common divisor. For example: the sequence 100, 200, 300, 400, ... represents a harmonic series, as does 29, 58, 87, 116, ... The sequence 500, 700, 930, 1190 ... is not a harmonic series, while 100, 150, 200, 250, ... is considered an incomplete harmonic series because of the missing first harmonic component (50). The frequency components of naturally occuring complex tones often conform to the harmonic series. See also harmonic, inharmonic, pseudo-harmonic. inharmonicity, Fourier analysis. inharmonic, Contrast with reductionism.

(abbrev. HR) The speed of the beating heart measured in beats per minute. A number of acoustical factors are known to influence the heart rate of listeners. Sounds that are associated with fear or concern tend to produce an increase in heart rate. Sounds that command our attention tend to evoke a momentary decrease in heart rate, followed by a brief increased in heart rate. This latter response is characteristic of the orienting response. See also passive attention, bradycardia, tachycardia, personality.

The unit of frequency, defined as the number of cycles or complete oscillations per second. The unit is named after the German scientist Heinrich Hertz. It is abbreviated using an upper-case initial letter (Hz) and is written in full using an lower-case initial letter (hertz).

One of four classic musical textures in which the music is based on two or more versions of a melody or line played concurrently. Heterophony is often likened to a musical "braid" in which several different renditions of the same melody are sounded simultaneously. Commonly, a heterophonic texture is created by a single vocalist and one or more instrumentalists embellishing the same musical line. Heterophony is uncommon in Western music. Many examples can be found in the music of north Africa and the Middle East. See also monophony, homophony, polyphony.

A classic law of perceptual learning. Research has shown that response times are related to familiarity with the stimulus. The greater the past exposure, the faster the response times. For example, suppose we display a series of photographs of people's faces and ask whether the person is looking to the left or to the right. Viewers will respond faster for photographs of well-known politicians and actors, than for unfamiliar faces.

Simpson and Huron (1994) showed that musicians posessing absolute pitch respond in a way consistent with the Hick-Hyman law. When asked to respond as quickly as possible, the fastest responses times are for notes like C and G (which occur frequently in music), and more slowly for notes like F and B (which occur less frequently in music). The slowest responses occur for rarely occuring pitches, like A# and D#. The response time is proportional to the information content of the pitches -- indicating the absolute pitch is a learned phenomenon. See absolute pitch.

The explanation of phenomena where complex wholes are regarded as being greater than the sum of its parts (a process dubbed synergism) and that there are "emergent properties." A holist assumes that complex phenomena cannot be explained merely in terms of simpler processes. Contrast with reductionism.

One of four classic musical textures in which the music is based on a succession of block chords or sonorities. Examples of homophonic textures include four-part hymns, and strummed guitar chords. See also monophony, polyphony, pseudo-polyphony, heterophony.

A belief in spirit and consciousness as fundamental, and not reducible to mechanical descriptions. Contrast with mechanism.

A presumed listening mode that arises when a listener is engaged in asking any "what is" question regarding the music. Typical "what is" questions are: What is this instrument I am listening to? Is that a Neapolitan sixth chord? What is the meter signature? What language are the lyrics in? Who might the composer be? What is the style of this music called? etc. Identity listening often employs allusive listening as a problem-solving tactic. See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

The mental representation associated with some sensory experience. See stream, auditory streaming.

In music theory, those intervals that are neither perfect nor dissonant. Specifically, the intervals of the major and minor third, the major and minor sixth, and their compound equivalents (major and minor tenths, etc.).

Imperfect consonances typically exhibit low tonal fusion and low sensory dissonance. See also consonance, perfect consonances, dissonances, tonal fusion.

A social attachment to some object or individual, formed during a critical period of development. A form of learning.

Knowledge claim based on generalizing from specific examples. For example, a research might study 1,000 people of varying ages and find that the younger people in this sample prefer faster tempos than the older people in the sample. The result may only be true of the 1,000 people studied, yet we often presume that, if the sample is randomly obtained, the result is true of the larger population. Philosophers have long recognized that it is logical untenable to generalize from specific examples. However, such inductive reasoning is very often correct.

See also auditory induction.

A partial is considered "inharmonic" when its frequency is not an integer multiple of a given fundamental frequency. Two- and three-dimensional vibrators (such as plates, drumheads, bells and gongs) typically produce inharmonic partials. Inharmonic is used both as an adjective and as a noun. Compare harmonic, pseudo-harmonic. See also inharmonicity.

Partial components of a complex tone may be characterized according to the degree to which their frequencies conform with the harmonic series of overtones. harmonics; partials that vaguely correspond are called pseudo-harmonics; partials that are clearly different are called inharmonics. Inharmonicity is a descriptive term applied to the cumulative effect of inharmonic components -- the greater the inharmonicity, the greater the "clangorousness" of the sound.

One of three conceptual anatomical divisions for the organ of hearing, including also the outer ear and the middle ear. The inner ear consists of a snail-shaped fluid-filled bony structure also known as the cochlea. The cochlea receives vibrations conveyed from the small bones of the middle ear and the resulting neural impulses are communicated to the auditory nerve. See also middle ear, outer ear.

A presumed listening mode that is a variant of allusive listening. Where allusive listening is based on the recognition of similarities to previous compositions, innovation listening is based on the identification of significant musical novelty. Innovation listening is characterized by a vigilant listening-in-readiness for a musical feature, gesture, or technique that is unprecedented in the listener's experience. Composers may be especially prone to engage in innovation listening: Stravinsky is reported to have claimed that the art of composition is the subtle art of disguising novel ideas `stolen' from others. See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

The subjectively perceived tone resulting when two (primary) tones of nearly equal frequency, produce beats. The pitch of this compromise or intertone lies between the two primary tones. (American National Standards Institute, Psychoacoustical Terminology, S3.20 (1973) p.23). See also pitches.

The distance between two pitches, usually labelled using one of the following systems: (1) the ratio of two frequencies, (2) in semitones,, (3) in cents, or (4) according to the diatonic/chromatic interval system of traditional Western music theory.

Burns and Ward (1978) showed that for Western musicians, pitch intervals are perceived categorically.

The quality of an acoustic signal in which a listener's impression is of a small, close, or intimate space. A term used in architectural acoustics to denote the time interval which elapses between the arrival of the direct sound and the arrival of the first reflection from the nearest wall or ceiling. Intimate sounds tend to have a significant first reflection less that 20 milliseconds after the arrival of the direct sound. See also proximity, reverberation, reverberation time. (L.L. Beranek, Music, Acoustics & Architecture, 1962, p.63).

The process of mental self-observation or self-examination. See phenomenology, cognitive penetrability. Compare extrospection.

The anatomical arrangement by which some nerves originating on one side of the body are connected to the cerebral hemisphere on the same side of the body. For example, nerves which connect the left ear (left cochlea) to the left hemisphere of the brain are said to be ipsilaterally connected. Contrasts with contralateral.

The variability in frequency as measured from cycle to cycle. A type of quasi-periodic modulation of frequency that is typically faster, narrower, and less controlled than vibrato. Increased jitter is associated with increased emotionality. Note that vocal jitter tends to increase with age, hence older people sometimes speak in a way which makes them appear to be in a state of heightened emotion. See also frequency modulation, quasi-periodic, shimmer.

A presumed listening mode that is characterized by the auditor's compulsion to move. Feet may tap, hands may conduct, or the listener may feel the urge to dance. The experience is not so much one of `listening' to the music, as the music `permeating' the body. Kinesthetic listening is best described as `motivation' rather than `contemplation'. See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

Carol Krumhansl and Ed Kessler used the probe tone technique to study the nature of tonality. Krumhansl and Kessler (1982) played a key-defining context consisting of an ascending (major or harmonic minor) scale, or a key-defining chord progression. After each repetition of the key-defining passage, a different tone was played and listeners were asked to judge how well the tone fit. Krumhansl and Kessler found a distinctive and stable pattern of response for the major and minor keys. In both modes, the tonic pitch was rated most highly, and non-scale tones were rated the lowest. More specifically, a four-level hierarchy was evident for both the major and minor keys: (1) the most important pitch is the tonic, (2) followed by the remaining tones of the tonic triad (i.e. dominant and mediant pitches), (3) followed by the other notes belonging to the scale, (4) followed by the non-scale tones.

The "key profiles" can be used estimate the key of a passage. See Krumhansl and Schmuckler algorithm. See also Butler's diads, schema.

See also probe tone technique, anchoring.

A technique for estimating the key of some arbitrary musical passage. The technique makes use of the Krumhansl and Kessler key profiles.

The algorithm works as follows. Without regard for enharmonic spellings, all pitch-classes in the passage are counted resulting in 12 values. For example, a passage may contain 14 C's, 2 C#'s, 8 D's, and so on. These 12 values are then correlated with the major key profile where C is deemed the tonic. Similarly, the 12 values are then correlated with the minor key profile where C is deemed the tonic. The process is repeated for all possible tonics: C-sharp/D-flat, D, D-sharp/E-flat, E, etc. After correlations have been calculated for all 24 major and minor pitch-class keys, the estimated key for the passage is given by the largest positive correlation.

The key estimations arising from the Krumhansl and Kessler algorithm tend to reflect tonality judgements made by listeners hearing the same passage. The algorithm appears to be about 85% correct for common musical passages.

See also probe tone technique.

In some cases, listeners attach conscious labels to perceptual categories or cognitive states. Examples include mentally identifying a chord as major or minor, identifying the size of a musical interval, etc. In most cases, listeners will experience such stimuli without evoking a conscious label. See also categorical perception.

A way of listening to music. A distinctive perceptual or cognitive approach to music listening. Listeners often exhibit preferred or habitual ways of listening to music. These include distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also cognitive style.

The subjective psychological correlate of amplitude or sound intensity. Perceived loudness depends on many factors, including frequency, timbre, amplitude, duration, etc. To a certain degree perceived loudness is also dependent on experience and learning. See primary auditory phenomena.

A lullaby (or cradle song) is a song intended to lull or pacify an infant by reducing the infant's level of arousal. Lullabies exhibit many of the features found in infant-directed (ID) speech. Unyk, Trehub, Trainor and Schellenberg (1992) carried out a study in which 28 recorded lullabies from a wide variety of cultures were matched with 28 non-lullaby songs from the same cultures. Unyk et al found the average pitch of the lullabies to be higher, and the number of changes of direction in pitch contour to be fewer. In addition, compared with the non-lullaby songs, the lullabies tended to employ a greater proportion of descending pitch intervals -- consistent with the descending pitch contours prevalent in "soothing speech."

A presumed listening mode. In music containing lyrics, a listener may pay special attention to "catching" the lyrics and attending to their meaning. Lyric listening is possible only when the music contains lyrics in a language which is understood by the listener. Where the lyrics of a work are well known to a listener, the lyrics themselves may act as mnemonics for a form of "sing-along listening." See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

The difficulty or impossibility of hearing one sound due to the presence of another sound. Masking commonly results when a loud (masker) sound occurs concurrently with a quieter (masked) sound. Masking may also occur even when the masker and masked sounds don't sound concurrently: if the masking sound follows after the masked sound in time, the effect is know as backward masking; when a masking sound appears prior to the masked sound it is called forward masking. See also critical band, crowding perceptions.

In philosophy, a belief in a mechanical conception of life and consciousness. A belief that there is no essential mystery or enigma -- there is only our ignorance of how things work. Contrast with humanism.

The short- or medium-range cause of something. See also proximate cause, distal cause.

See anchoring.

A marked tendency for melodic phrases to (on average) rise and then fall in pitch over the course of the phrase. The following graph shows an average pitch contour for over six thousand 7-note phrases from European folksongs. The X-axis indicates the average pitch height (in semitones above middle C) for successive note positions.



Further information is available regarding the melodic arch. See also declination.

Those mental functions that allow a person to recall, or act on the basis of past events or experiences. See associative memory, short-term memory, primacy, recency, memory scan listening.

A presumed listening mode that is possible when a listener knows a work by memory. An auditor may approach a memorized work with a question concerning the occurrence of a certain event: For example, the auditor may be interested in knowing whether the composer has used timpani in a given work; or does the word "but" occur in the lyrics to "Row Row Row Your Boat?" The scan listener will mentally execute a speedy rendition of a work in order to answer a given question. What distinguishes scan listening from signal listening is that the auditor tends to be impatient: the tempo of the music can be doubled or quadrupled to advantage for the scan listener. See distracted listening, tangential listening, metaphysical listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

Metabolic behaviors include internal physiological changes, such as changes of heart-rate, depth and rate of breathing, electroencephalographic changes (i.e. "brain waves"), changes of hormone levels, and so forth. In addition, metabolic behaviors can be deemed to include so-called "topical" changes -- that is, changes to the surface of the skin, such as goose bumps (piloerection) and weeping. Compare gross behavior, verbal behavior, and topical.

A presumed listening mode similar to distracted listening insofar as the listener may not be especially attentive to the on-going perceptual experience. But the listener may be engaged in thinking about questions of some importance related to the work, such as: what motivated the composer to write this work? what does this music mean? why do I find this work so appealing? etc. See distracted listening, tangential listening, signal listening, sing-along listening, lyric listening, programmatic listening, allusive listening, reminiscent listening, identity listening, retentive listening, fault listening, feature listening, innovation listening, memory scan listening, directed listening, distance listening, ecstatic listening, emotional listening, kinesthetic listening, performance listening. See also listening mode, cognitive style.

One of three conceptual anatomical divisions for the organ of hearing, including also the outer ear and the inner ear. The air-filled ear cavity located behind the eardrum or timpanic membrane. The middle ear contains three small bones ossicles. that connect the timpanic membrane to the oval window of the cochlea. The cavity can be vented to the outside world via the eustachian tube.

The process of shifting from one key or key area to another within a single musical work or passage. Modulations typically move to closely related keys as defined by the circle of fifths or by the key torus. See also tonal closure. Krumhansl and Kessler key profiles.

Pertaining to a single ear, as in the monaural presentation of musical stimuli to a listener. Contrasts with binaural. See also binaural, diotic, dichotic. monophonic, stereophonic.

The phenomenon of mis-hearing something -- often caused by invoking an incorrect or inappropriate schema.

The phenomenon was dubbed the Mondegreen Effect by Jon Carroll who misheard the lyrics for the folk ballad "The Earl O'Moray:"

Oh, ye highlands and ye lowlands,
Oh, where have ye been?
They have slain the Earl of Moray
And Lady Mondegreen.

In fact, the correct lyrics for the final two lines are:

They have slain the Earl of Moray
And laid him on the green.

Steven Pinker (1994) has identified a number of other examples of the Mondegreen effect, including:

A girl with colitis goes by. [A girl with kaleidoscope eyes. From the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."]

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes are wrapped and stored. [... grapes of wrath are stored. From "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."]

It is likely that Mondegreen effects also occur in mis-hearing rhythms, meters, timbres, and harmonies. However, most listeners are unaware of situations where they are hearing a musical passage in a way that departs from how the composer (or other listeners) hear the passage.

A method of sound reproduction based on a single channel for recording and playback. Contrasts with stereophonic. Not to be confused with monophony. See also monaural, binaural, diotic, dichotic, stereophonic.

One of four classic musical textures in which the music is based on a single melody or single line of sound. Monophony is typically performed by a single vocalist or instrumentalist, or by a group of vocalists/instrumentalists performing in unison. See also homophony, polyphony, pseudo-polyphony, heterophony.

A background feeling that extends over a length of time and which appears to have no specific cause or origin. (Contrast emotion and temperament.) Examples of moods include feeling tired, feeling grumpy, feeling agitated, feeling contented, or feeling energized. Moods are accessible to introspection so we can describe how we feel.

While many cultural differences are evident, listeners nevertheless show a cross-cultural similarity when characterizing the moods evoked by various musical works -- including sadness, exhuberance, etc.

Mood regulation (i.e. changing or enhancing moods) is possibly the most common "use" of recorded or broadcast music. Thayer (1996) found that roughly 50% of respondents use music to temper or eliminate a bad mood. See Thayer's model of moods.

The most common pitch occurring in a musical piece, passage, or melody. The modal pitch (in the statistical sense of that word).

When exposed to any scale system, listeners tend to experience the most common pitch as the most most stable pitch. With exposure, the most common pitch tends to to be heard as a tonic. In music from many cultures, the final pitch of a melody also tends to be the most common pitch. Compare finalis, drone, tonic.

A company founded in 1936 to provide commercial functional music. Muzak products include Muzak for workplaces.

A type of music designed to increase worker productivity in office and manufacturing environments. This is achieved by manipulating the arousal levels of listeners without attracting the listener's attention. The stimulus level of the music is manipulated over the course of the work day to compensate for typical changes of tonic arousal. Specifically, the stimulus levels are chosen to compensate for the Burris-Meyer and Cardinell fatigue curve.

Nakamura (1980, 1982, 1987) showed that crescendos (continuous increased of loudness) are more easily recognized by listeners than equivalent diminuendos (decreasing loudness). This is true for both musical and non-musical passages. See also attention, and ramp archetype.

See stimulants.

See norepinephrine.

A hormone released by the adrenal glands (located above the kidneys) associated with increased arousal. Norepinephrine is delivered diffusely throughout the brain with particularly elevated amounts being delivered to the sensory regions of the brain surface or cerebral cortex. It raises the sensitivity of the sensory systems and is commonly released as part of the fight-or-flight response. arousal, epinephrine.

The subjective impression of the number of concurrent sound sources. Numerosity is related to the degree of tonal fusion, and the number of auditory streams. See also primary auditory phenomena.

A musical term denoting an interval of pitch between two pitches whose frequencies are related in the approximate ratio of 2:1. Since exact octaves are frequently not always precisely related by a 2:1 frequency ratio, psychoacousticians have also defined the octave as the pitch interval between two tones such that one tone is perceived as duplicating the basic musical import of the other tone at the nearest possible higher or lower pitch. (American National Standards Institute, Psychoacoustical Terminology, S3.20, 1973; p.34). See also cent, semitone.

A complex tone consisting of only octave partials. Typically, all audible octave partials are included in such tones. For example, an octave-spaced tone might consist of pure tones at the following frequencies: 50 Hz, 100 Hz, 200 Hz, 400 Hz, 800 Hz, 1,600 Hz, 3,200 Hz, 6,400 Hz, and 12,800 Hz. Similarly, an octave-spaced tone might consist of pure tones tuned to the following pitches: C#1, C#2, C#3, C#4, C#5, C#6, C#7, C#8, C#9, C#10.

Octave-spaced tones are often used as a simple way of approximating Shepards tones. Octave spaced tones differ from Shepards tones in that the amplitudes for all of the partials are equivalent. See also Shepards tone.

The initial porition of a sound envelope. For most natural sounds, the onset is typically complex. The onset of a sound is often (though not always) perceptually important for identifying sounds.

An involuntary response indicative of passive attention. Our best hearing and vision occur when stimuli are located directly in front of us, so orienting in the direction of the stimulus facilitates gathering information. The gross orienting response entails moving our head (or eyes) in the direction of a stimulus. However, less evident orienting responses can be observed by characteristic metabolic changes. This include: increased skin conductance (due to perspiration), pupil dilation, heart rate deceleration, (bradycardia), cephalic vasodilation, peripheral vasoconstriction, electromyographic effects, and electroencephalographic effects (P3). See also attention, dishabituation. Compare with arousal.

The three small bones located in the middle ear, including the hammer (malleus), anvil (incus), and stirrup (stapes). See also cochlea, oval window, timpanic membrane.

One of three conceptual anatomical divisions for the organ of hearing, including also the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of the exterior ear or pinna, plus the tube-shaped ear canal. The outer ear terminates at the eardrum or timpanic membrane.

1. Any simple sine tone (not necessarily harmonic) which exists above a fundamental frequency and which fuses with other components to form a single complex tone; any partial that occurs above the perceived pitch of a complex tone. Contrast with undertone.

2. The term overtone has frequently been used interchangeably with harmonic -- meaning a simple frequency component of a complex tone which is an integer multiple of some given fundamental frequency. The fundamental frequency (or simply "fundamental") is also called the first harmonic, but is not called an overtone. The second harmonic is referred to as the first overtone, the third harmonic is called the second overtone, and so on.

A feature found in the auditory evoked potential as measured in an electroencephalogram. When a sound is heard, the near simultaneous firing of millions of neurons can be recorded. The fluctuations of voltage display a stereotypic behavior for the first half second or so. The first positive peak in the electroencephalogram is referred to as "P1"; The first negative trough in the electroencephalogram is referred to as "N1". The third positive peak (P3) occurs roughly 300 milliseconds after the onset of the sound. P3 has been shown to correlate with important subjective phenomena. When P3 occurs especially soon (so-called "early P3"), it has been shown that listeners are more likely have paid attention to the sound. That is, occurrences of early P3 indicate orienting responses characteristic of moments of passive attention. See auditory evoked potential.

Same as P3.

Any simple sine tone component that fuses perceptually with other components to form a complex tone. Partials need not be harmonics and may occur either above or bel