The perceptual restoration of music.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 121
Description: Overall, these experiments show that the perceptual restoration of music is possible, and reflects a domain-general phenomenon. The importance of extraneous noise level highlights the role of the potential masking. These results are discussed in terms of potential perceptual organizations and processes involved in perceptual restoration.Listeners have a remarkable ability to make sense of sounds in noisy situations. A dramatic example of this ability is the perceptual restoration of sounds that are missing altogether on the basis of contextual information and listeners' knowledge and expectations. Perceptual restoration was examined here in musical contexts using a procedure in which listeners were asked to discriminate between the presence and absence of the critical tone within an extraneous noise burst. Restoration leads listeners to mistake the absence for the presence of the critical tone, thereby decreasing discrimination within familiar contexts.Experiments 1 and 2 replicated and extended an earlier study (DeWitt & Samuel, 1990) that failed to find perceptual restoration of familiar melodies. Of the two experimental factors examined (extraneous noise level and critical-tone duration) increasing the extraneous noise level (+6 dB) beyond that of the critical tone was found to successfully bring about the perceptual restoration of the critical tone.Experiment 5 examined whether the effects of familiarity established through repeated listening generalized to otherwise identical melodies transposed up or down in pitch to different degrees. Listeners' discrimination for transposed "familiar" melodies increased in the same way as for "unfamiliar" melodies, suggesting that the acquired familiarity captures fairly specific aspects of the melody, rather than the melody's abstract form or contour.Experiments 3 and 4 examined the perceptual restoration of novel random melodies. After a novel melody was made familiar to listeners through repeated listening, listeners' discrimination for this "familiar" melody but increased for an "unfamiliar" control melody. The increase in discrimination was found to be due to the effect of practice with the discrimination task. However, the decrease in discrimination reflected the counteracting effects of restoration. Furthermore, the restoration effect was only found when the extraneous noise level exceeded (+6 to +18 dB) that of the critical tone.
Notes: Adviser:  Mark Schmuckler.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 65-10, Section: B, page: 5444.