The Influence of Sensory and Cognitive Consonance/Dissonance on Musical Signal Processing Susan E. Rogers Department of Psychology McGill University, Montréal June, 2010 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Psychology. © Susan E. Rogers, 2010 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... vii Résumé ........................................................................................................................... viii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... ix Preface............................................................................................................................... xi Manuscript-Based Thesis................................................................................................... xi Contributions of Authors ................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1.......................................................................................................................1 Introduction........................................................................................................................2 Overview of Literature.........................................................................................................3 A Brief History of Consonance and Dissonance......................................................3 “Natural” Musical Intervals ...................................................................................5 Auditory Short-term Memory...................................................................................6 Auditory Roughness in Sensory Dissonance............................................................8 Psychophysical Scaling of Musical Sounds .............................................................8 Rationale and Research Objectives .....................................................................................9 CHAPTER 2.....................................................................................................................11 Roughness Ratings for Just- and Microtuned dyads from Expert and Nonexpert Listeners............................................................................................................................12 Abstract.............................................................................................................................13 Introduction......................................................................................................................14 Auditory Roughness and Sensory Dissonance...................................................................14 Musical Expertise and Processing Differences .................................................................16 Subjective Rankings: Sources of Error and Variability.....................................................18 Experiment 1—Pure-tone dyads: Method.....................................................................20 Participants............................................................................................................20 Apparatus and Stimuli ...........................................................................................21 Procedure...............................................................................................................21 Results ...................................................................................................................22 Experiment 2— Complex-tone, just-tuned dyads: Method .........................................24 Participants............................................................................................................24 Apparatus and Stimuli ...........................................................................................25 Procedure...............................................................................................................25 Results ...................................................................................................................25 Experiment 3— Microtuned dyads: Method ................................................................27 Participants............................................................................................................27 Apparatus and stimuli............................................................................................27 Procedure...............................................................................................................28 Results ...................................................................................................................28 Comparative Analysis: Method......................................................................................30 Results: Pure-tone, just-tuned dyads.....................................................................30 Results: Complex-tone, just-tuned dyads ..............................................................31 Results: Microtuned, complex-tone dyads.............................................................31 Analyzer Cross-Comparisons ................................................................................32 ii Discussion .........................................................................................................................32 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................35 Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................36 Appendix...........................................................................................................................37 Footnote ............................................................................................................................39 Tables ................................................................................................................................40 Figure Captions................................................................................................................53 CHAPTER 3.....................................................................................................................65 Short-term Memory for Consonant and Dissonant Pure-Tone Dyads.......................66 Abstract.............................................................................................................................67 Introduction......................................................................................................................68 Consonance and Dissonance .............................................................................................68 Auditory STM.....................................................................................................................70 Method ..............................................................................................................................71 Participants............................................................................................................71 Apparatus and Stimuli ...........................................................................................72 Procedure...............................................................................................................73 Results ...............................................................................................................................75 Data Analysis.....................................................................................................................75 Overall Performance and the Effect of Musical Training .....................................76 The Effect of Retention Period...............................................................................76 The Effect of Consonance and Dissonance............................................................77 Cognitive C/D ............................................................................................77 Sensory C/D ...............................................................................................78 Tests of Auditory Memory Duration ......................................................................79 The Effect of Secondary Variables.........................................................................79 Discussion .........................................................................................................................80 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................83 Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................84 Appendix A.......................................................................................................................85 Deriving sensory consonance/dissonance levels ...................................................85 Deriving cognitive consonance/dissonance levels.................................................89 Appendix B .......................................................................................................................90 Tables ................................................................................................................................91