A figural approach to the role of melodic contour in melody recognition

Abstract

These experiments looked at specific components of melodic contour, reversals in pitch, and nonrevereals, using a short-term recognition memory paradigm. Listeners found it easier to discriminate between same and different melody pairs if changes occurred at contour reversals. This result was independent of rate of presentation, suggesting that the salience of upper and lower reversals is not attributable to a form of perceptual streaming. These results suggest an analogy between auditory and visual contours. If melodic contour is represented as a series of pitches extending over time, then reversals can be interpreted as "corners" and nonreversals as "slopes." The results are consistent with a global strategy of perceptual analysis whereby corners are more salient because they "define the figure." An alternative explanation is that the melodies are processed in a way that is similar to the processing of the intonation pattern of speech. These contour feature effects were drastically reduced when the second melody was transposed and/or following a familiarization procedure. This last result is attributed to a more detailed perceptual analysis being performed under these conditions, a process that is less influenced by contour. Therefore, while specific contour features, reversals in pitch, play a part in the recognition of untransposed novel melodies, these features are not prevalent in the recognition of transposed and more familiar sequences. © 1984 Psychonomic Society, Inc.