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Memory and Production of Standard Frequencies in College-Level Musicians Sarah E

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Memory and Production of Standard Frequencies in College-Level Musicians Sarah E University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 2013 Memory and Production of Standard Frequencies in College-Level Musicians Sarah E. Weber University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses Part of the Cognition and Perception Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Music Education Commons, and the Music Theory Commons Weber, Sarah E., "Memory and Production of Standard Frequencies in College-Level Musicians" (2013). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 1162. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/1162 This thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Memory and Production of Standard Frequencies in College-Level Musicians A Thesis Presented by SARAH WEBER Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF MUSIC September 2013 Music Theory © Copyright by Sarah E. Weber 2013 All Rights Reserved Memory and Production of Standard Frequencies in College-Level Musicians A Thesis Presented by SARAH WEBER _____________________________ Gary S. Karpinski, Chair _____________________________ Andrew Cohen, Member _____________________________ Brent Auerbach, Member _____________________________ Jeff Cox, Department Head Department of Music and Dance DEDICATION For my parents and Grandma. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Kristen Wallentinsen for her help with experimental logistics, Renée Morgan for giving me her speakers, and Nathaniel Liberty for his unwavering support, problem-solving skills, and voice-over help. This project would have been impossible without guidance from Dr. Andrew Cohen, who introduced me to statistical analysis and helped with the interpretation of my experimental results. I would also like to thank my professors at Ithaca College who modeled great teaching and thinking. v ABSTRACT ! WITHIN-SEMITONE ACCURACY OF THE LONG-TERM MEMORY OF ABSOLUTE PITCH IN NON-ABSOLUTE PITCH POSSESSORS SEPTEMBER 2013 !SARAH ELIZABETH WEBER, B.M., ITHACA COLLEGE M.M., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Dr. Gary S. Karpinski This thesis examines the nature of long-term absolute pitch memory—an ability traditionally assumed to belong only to absolute pitch (AP) possessors—by testing for evidence of this memory for “standard” frequencies in musicians without AP. Standard frequencies, those based on the equally tempered system with A = 440 Hz, are common in the sonic environment of the Western college musical education, and thus could have the opportunity to penetrate listeners’ long-term memories. Through four experimental tasks, this thesis examines musicians’ ability to recognize and produce frequencies from the set of equally tempered frequencies based on A = 440 Hz, without regard to those musicians’ pitch- labeling abilities. The experimental tasks also compare freshmen with seniors to test if exposure to standard frequencies during a college musical education engrains standard frequencies in long-term memory. The results suggest that musicians without AP cannot distinguish between standard and nonstandard frequencies during listening tasks, but they may be able to recall them without prompting when singing familiar folk songs. However, musical training during the college years does not seem to improve these abilities. Further experimentation is needed to corroborate the results, including modifications to the current tasks and methodology, as well as a larger subject size. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. vi LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1 A. Background and Related Work ........................................................................................ 1 B. Thesis Statement ............................................................................................................ 10 2: THE PRESENT STUDY .................................................................................................... 13 A. Experimental Tasks ........................................................................................................ 13 B. Subjects .......................................................................................................................... 14 3: RATING TASK .................................................................................................................. 16 A. Method ........................................................................................................................... 16 B. Data Interpretation .......................................................................................................... 17 C. Results ............................................................................................................................ 19 4: JND TASK .......................................................................................................................... 23 A. Method ........................................................................................................................... 23 B. Data Interpretation .......................................................................................................... 25 C. Results ............................................................................................................................ 26 5: FOLK-SONG TASK .......................................................................................................... 29 vii A. Method ........................................................................................................................... 29 B. Data Interpretation .......................................................................................................... 29 C. Results ............................................................................................................................ 30 6: ADJUSTMENT TASK ....................................................................................................... 33 A. Method ........................................................................................................................... 33 B. Data Interpretation .......................................................................................................... 35 C. Results ............................................................................................................................ 36 7: DISCUSSION, LIMITATIONS OF THE EXPERIMENT, AND AVENUES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ........................................................................................................ 39 A. Discussion ...................................................................................................................... 39 B. Limitations of the Experiment ........................................................................................ 43 1. Experimental Design ................................................................................................... 43 2. Methodology ............................................................................................................... 46 C. Avenues for Further Research ........................................................................................ 49 D. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 56 APPENDICES A: INFORMATION PROVIDED BY SUBJECTS ON THEIR MUSICAL BACKGROUND ................................................................................................. 57 B: FOLK SONG LIST WITH SYLLABLES USED BY SUBJECTS ................................... 58 C: DISCOGRAPHY FOR ADJUSTMENT TASK ................................................................ 59 D: ADJUSTMENT TASK RECORDING ORDERS ............................................................. 60 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................... 61 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1: JNDs by subject: overall JND, and JND for standard and nonstandard tones.....................26 2: Summary of the adjustment data.........................................................................................36 3: Reproduction of the data from Table 2, JND for AP subjects.............................................42 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1a: zROCs for seniors..............................................................................................................20 1b: zROCs for freshmen..........................................................................................................21 2: AZ scores for standard and nonstandard tones, freshmen and seniors compared................22
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