Words Modification) for 15 S

Memory representations of musical tempo: Stable or adaptive? Sabine Strauß Oliver Vitouch Olivia Ladinig Cognitive Psychology Unit, Cognitive Psychology Unit, Music Cognition Group, Dept. of Psychology, Dept. of Psychology, Dept. of Musicology and Insti- University of Klagenfurt, Austria University of Klagenfurt, Austria tute for Logic, Language & [email protected] Computation, University of Am-

sterdam, The Netherlands

Dorothee Augustin Claus-Christian Carbon Helmut Leder Dept. of Psychological Dept. of Psychological Dept. of Psychological Basic Research, Basic Research, Basic Research, University of Vienna, Austria University of Vienna, Austria University of Vienna, Austria

ABSTRACT pink noise, and 2 s silence. In the probe phase, they heard either the "original" or a "shifted" version (+ 10%) for 1. Background maximally 30 s. In a yes-no task, subjects decided whether Long-term memory processes play a central role for the the test stimulus was the original version of the theme. way we represent the world. They provide standards for comparison of familiar content with novel stimuli, but must The design was fully balanced, with the treatment (original also allow for adaptive updating of these standards. For vs. extreme) × probe (original vs. shifted) x theme combi- instance, human faces are typically assumed to elicit stable nations resulting in 24 trials. memory representations. However, Webster and MacLin 4. Results (1999) have shown that presenting extremely distorted A three-way repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a clear- faces affects the ability to distinguish between original and cut treatment × probe interaction (across all themes; p < slightly shifted versions. Carbon and Leder (2005) demon- .001). Correct rejection of a "shifted" probe dropped from strated that this adaptation effect also holds for highly fa- 68% in the control condition to 28% in the "extreme" miliar faces (celebrities). treatment condition. 2. Aims 5. Conclusions This project tests if these findings can be generalized to the Results are consistent with Carbon and Leder (2005), and auditory domain (music, voices). The present study deals demonstrate the domain-generality of the adaptation effect. with the stability of tempo representations: Does the per- They point to flexible updating processes in the formation ception of extremely accelerated versions of familiar pieces of long-term memory standards, and are in line with Du- affect judgments about their original tempo? dai’s (2004) neurophysiological theory of adaptive memory 3. Method formation. While memory representations of tempo may be Thirty subjects (mean age = 26.5, SD = 7.5) were tested generally stable (Levitin & Cook, 1996), they are strongly with six TV title themes, pre-selected for familiarity. In the susceptible to context information. treatment phase, they heard either the "original" or an "extreme" version (digitally accelerated, + 30%, no pitch Keywords modification) for 15 s. This was followed by 2 s silence, 3 s Memory representation, musical tempo, TV themes, adaptation effect, adaptive memory formation

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Music Perception & INTRODUCTION Cognition (ICMPC9). ©2006 The Society for Music Perception & Cog- Long term memory processes play a central role for the nition (SMPC) and European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM). Copyright of the content of an individual paper is held way we represent the world. It is generally agreed that they by the primary (first-named) author of that paper. All rights reserved. No provide standards for comparison of familiar content with paper from this proceedings may be reproduced or transmitted in any novel stimuli, but also allow for adaptive updating of these form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy- standards. For instance, human faces are typically assumed ing, recording, or by any information retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the paper's primary author. No other part of this to elicit stable memory representations. However, Webster proceedings may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any and MacLin (1999) have shown that presenting extremely means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or distorted faces affects the ability to distinguish between by any information retrieval system, with permission in writing from original and slightly shifted versions. Carbon and Leder SMPC and ESCOM.

(2005) demonstrated that this adaptation effect also holds treatment stimuli, the first 15 seconds of every theme were for highly familiar faces (celebrities). digitally accelerated using the free audio software Audacity This project aims to demonstrate comparable effects in the (http://audacity.sourceforge.net). In correspondence to the auditory domain. We wanted to analogously test if presen- design of Leder and Carbon (2005), every piece has three tations of extremely distorted versions of audio signals can versions: the original version, the shifted version (tempo change usually stable representations. For instance, this can acceleration +10%) and the extreme version (+30%). be done with recordings of familiar or famous voices, or of All digital tempo transformations were induced in a way familiar or famous pieces of music, and shifts can be in- that does not affect pitch levels (i.e., original pitches were duced on the tempo and/or the pitch dimension. Former retained), without any discernible loss of sound signal qual- work has shown that memory representations for musical ity. However, in order to avoid any influence of potential pitch and musical tempo can be remarkably stable across cues (audio artifacts) due to the transformation procedure, time, also for long time spans (e.g., Bergeson & Trehub, also “unshifted” recordings were shifted and re-shifted to 2002; Levitin, 1994; Levitin & Cook, 1996; Schellenberg the original tempo. & Trehub, 2003; Vitouch & Gaugusch, 2000). In this paper we present a first study within this framework, testing the Procedure influence of tempo-shifted versions of familiar tunes (with- All participants were asked to listen to the tracks via head- out pitch shifting) on estimates of original tempo. phones, with constant volume level, in the experimental psychology laboratory (XLab) of the University of Klagen- AIMS furt. The present study focuses on the following questions: Subjects first listened to all TV themes and were asked to • How stable are tempo representations? name the title of the TV series. If a participant could not • Does the perception of extremely accelerated versions remember the name of the series but could instead describe of familiar pieces of music affect judgments about the it in detail, the recognition task was considered positively original tempo? performed. • Do these effects in the music domain show structural In the treatment phase participants heard either an original correspondence to the recently demonstrated effects in or an extreme version of a TV theme for 15 s. This phase the visual domain, i.e., is the effect domain-general? was followed by a break of 2 s silence, 3 s pink noise, and another 2 s silence. The pink noise was used to avoid any METHOD echo effects (in the visual domain, “afterimages”). After this, in the probe phase, the participants heard either the Subjects original or a shifted version for maximally 30 s. In a yes-no Thirty undergraduate participants (mean age = 26.5, SD = decision task they decided whether the test stimulus was 7.5, 5 males) at the University of Klagenfurt were tested the original version of the TV theme. The participants were individually. The participants were recruited as part of asked to base their decision not on the preceding version of study requirements. They were naive to the aim of the the theme but solely on their knowledge about the theme. study. The theme-sets were presented in a randomized order. The design of the experiment was fully balanced, with each Stimuli of the possible 2 × 6 TV themes (extreme vs. shifted) being Following the material used by Schellenberg and Trehub crossed with each possible probe theme (original vs. (2003) and Maylor (1991, 1995), the themes of six US tele- shifted), resulting in 24 total trials. The procedure took vision series from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were about 20 minutes. After the experiment, the participants used. had to answer a short questionnaire including questions • The Waltons (USA 1972-1973) about age, sex, education level, and profession. • I Dream About Jeannie (USA 1965-1970) RESULTS • Knight Rider (USA 1982-1986) The familiarity with the themes was, with the exception of • Dallas (USA 1978-1991) Emergency Room, above 50%. The best-recognized theme was Knight Rider, with 90% of participants acknowledging • The X-Files (USA 1993-2002) to have heard it before (see Table 1). • Emergency Room (USA 1994-) A three-way repeated-measures ANOVA with the factors Television themes have (a) a high recognition value, (b) treatment (original vs. extreme), probe (original vs. have been absorbed by certain age-cohorts at a high rate shifted), and theme (six TV themes) showed a clear-cut and (c) have often not been refreshed for decades (Strauß treatment × probe interaction. The interaction is evident & Vitouch, 2005). All selected TV themes are instrumental across all TV themes (p < .001). The average correct rejec- pieces without text. In order to produce tempo-shifted tion of a shifted probe dropped from as much as 68% in the ICMPC9 – International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition - Proceedings control condi- ICMPC9 – International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition - Proceedings

I dream about Jeannie The Waltons

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Figure 1. Average ‘yes’ rate for the treatment × probe interaction. Answer ‘yes’ is correct for original and incorrect for shifted probes.

ICMPC9 – International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition - Proceedings Table 1. Recognition frequencies of the TV themes REFERENCES TV Theme Recognition Frequency Bergeson, T. R., & Trehub, S. E. (2002). Absolute pitch Knight Rider 90% and tempo in mothers’ songs to infants. Psychological Sci- ence, 13, 72-75. The X-Files 87% The Waltons 67% Carbon, C.-C., & Leder, H. (2005). Face adaptation: I Dream About Jeannie 63% Changing stable representations of familiar faces within minutes? Advances in Cognitive Psychology, 1, 1-7. Dallas 57% Emergency Room 33% Dudai, Y. (2004). The neurobiology of consolidations, or, how stable is the engram? Annual Review of Psychology, tion to only 28% in the extreme treatment condition. Par- 55, 51-86. ticipants are considerably better in distinguishing between Levitin, D. J. (1994). Absolute memory for musical pitch: the original and the shifted version after having heard the Evidence from the production of learned melodies. Percep- original version (without knowing that it is the original) in tion & Psychophysics, 56, 414-423. the treatment phase. Figure 1 (previous page) displays this strong and general- Levitin, D. J., & Cook, P. R. (1996). Memory for musical ized two-way interaction effect, in single displays for all tempo: Additional evidence that auditory memory is abso- six TV themes (three-way interaction insignificant, p = lute. Perception & Psychophysics, 58, 927-935. .436). Maylor, E. A. (1991). Recognizing and naming tunes: CONCLUSIONS Memory impairment in the elderly. Journal of Geronto- The presentation of extreme versions of a TV theme re- logy: Psychological Sciences, 46, P207-217. duces the ability to discriminate between shifted and original versions. Participants seem to rapidly integrate new Maylor, E. A. (1995). Remembering versus knowing tele- auditory information into a flexible mental representation vision theme tunes in middle-aged and elderly adults. Bri- by means of quick context-driven updating. tish Journal of Psychology, 86, 21-25. The effects show strong structural correspondence to the Strauß, S., & Vitouch, O. (2005). Jeannie, Kirk, & John results of Carbon and Leder (2005) in the visual / face rec- Boy: Title themes of TV series as triggers of old and auto- ognition domain. They point to flexible updating processes biographical memories. In I. Manenica (Ed.), 7th Alps- in the formation of long-term memory standards, and are Adria Conference in Psychology – Abstracts (pp. 221-222). well in line with Dudai’s (2004) neurophysiological theory Zadar, Croatia: Dept. of Psychology, University of Zadar. of adaptive memory formation. New information seems to get quickly integrated into a flexible representational Schellenberg, E. G., & Trehub, S. E. (2003). Good pitch frame, quite independent of the perceptual domain under memory is widespread. Psychological Science, 14, 262- investigation. This points to an evolutionarily plausible, 266. domain-general memory updating mechanism, which stands in contrast to more traditional theories of engram Vitouch, O., & Gaugusch, A. (2000). Absolute recognition formation assuming stable imprints based on a single “writ- of musical keys in non-absolute-pitch-possessors. In C. ing” trial. Woods, G. Luck, R. Brochard, F. Seddon & J. A. Sloboda (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on It remains to be unraveled (a) which specific conditions Music Perception and Cognition (CD-ROM). Keele, UK: lead to high stability (“freezing”) vs. “current updating” of Dept. of Psychology, Keele University. memory content, and (b) if the adaptation effect has long- term consequences on memory templates. Future studies Webster, M. A., & McLin, O. H. (1999). Figural afteref- within this project will dig deeper into this, using other fects in the perception of faces. Psychonomic Bulletin & types of shifts (e.g., pitching) and audio material (voices), Review, 6, 647-653. inducing experimental control over the degree of familiarity of the original, and including tests for delayed and transfer effects.