Effect of Context on the Perception of Pitch Structures

Abstract

Considers some studies that provide convincing evidence about the role played by top-down processes on the processing of pitch structures in music perception. It begins by considering some basic examples in the visual domain, which differentiate both types of processes. We then consider how similar top-down processes influence the perception as well as the memorization of pitch structures and govern perceptual expectancies. Most of these examples were taken from the music domain. It is likely that Western composers have taken advantage of the fundamental characteristic of the human brain to process pitch structures as a function of the current context and have thus developed a complex musical grammar based on a very small set of musical notes. Some of the neurophysiological bases of top-down processes in the music domain are summarized and the acquisition of knowledge and top-down processes as well as their simulation by artificial neural nets are analyzed. We argue that regular pitch structures from environmental sounds are internalized through passive exposure and that the acquired implicit knowledge then governs auditory expectations. The way this implicit learning in the music domain may be formalized by neural net models is also considered. To close this essay, we put forward some implications of these studies on context effects for artificial systems of pitch processing and for methods of training hearing-impaired listeners.