Exploring the influence of pitch proximity on listener's melodic expectations

Abstract

Two studies, one correlational and one meta-analytic, were conducted to explore whether pitch proximity influences listeners’ melodic expectations about pitch direction and tonality. Study 1 used a probe-tone task. Specifically, listeners heard fragments of tonal melodies ending on intervals of 1 or 2 semitones, and rated how well individual tones (the probe-tones) continued each fragment. Regression analyses showed that listeners expected probe-tones to be proximate in pitch to the last tone they heard in the fragments, but not to the penultimate one, as there was no evidence of expectations for a change in pitch direction. However, listeners expected probe-tones to be proximate to (at least one of) the other tones they had heard in the fragments, as there was evidence of expectations for a melodic movement toward the bulk of the fragments’ pitch distribution. In addition, the most stable probe-tones in the key of the fragments were more expected than the least stable ones only when they were proximate to the tones presented in the fragments. The results of Study 1 were replicated and extended in Study 2, in which a meta-analysis of data reported in Schellenberg (1996, Experiment 1) was performed. These data had been collected using the same probe-tone task as in Study 1, but different melodic fragments; the fragments ended on intervals of 2 or 3 semitones. Together, the present findings suggest, first, that when small intervals occur in a melody, pitch proximity has only a global influence on expectations about pitch direction; and second, that pitch proximity constrains the influence of tonality on melodic expectation.