The aim of this study was to examine the effects of three acoustic parameters on the difficulty of segregating a simple 4-note melody from a background of interleaved distractor notes. Melody segregation difficulty ratings were recorded while three acoustic parameters of the distractor notes were varied separately: intensity, temporal envelope, and spectral envelope. Statistical analyses revealed a significant effect of music training on difficulty rating judgments. For participants with music training, loudness was the most efficient perceptual cue, and no difference was found between the dimensions of timbre influenced by temporal and spectral envelope. For the group of listeners with less music training, both loudness and spectral envelope were the most efficient cues. We speculate that the difference between musicians and nonmusicians may be due to differences in processing the stimuli: musicians may process harmonic sound sequences using brain networks specialized for music, whereas nonmusicians may use speech networks.
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February 2013
Research Article|
February 01 2013
The Effect of Timbre and Loudness on Melody Segregation
Jeremy Marozeau,
1The Bionics Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jeremy Marozeau, The Bionics Institute, 384-388 Albert Street, East Melbourne, VIC 3002. E-mail: [email protected]
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Hamish Innes-Brown,
Hamish Innes-Brown
1The Bionics Institute, Melbourne, Australia
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Peter J. Blamey
Peter J. Blamey
1The Bionics Institute, Melbourne, Australia
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Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jeremy Marozeau, The Bionics Institute, 384-388 Albert Street, East Melbourne, VIC 3002. E-mail: [email protected]
Music Perception (2013) 30 (3): 259–274.
Article history
Received:
April 12 2011
Accepted:
May 18 2012
Citation
Jeremy Marozeau, Hamish Innes-Brown, Peter J. Blamey; The Effect of Timbre and Loudness on Melody Segregation. Music Perception 1 February 2013; 30 (3): 259–274. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2012.30.3.259
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