Listeners detect deviant tone patterns worse when pattern intervals vary more

Evidence

There was a main effect of block (F(6,294) = 41.61, p < 0.001, ε = 0.790, partial η2 = 0.459). The effect of transposition (contrasting block 1 with the average of blocks 5 and 6) was significant (t = ‑10.36, p < 0.001). The effect of one exact repetition (contrasting block 2 with block 6) was not significant (t = 0.59, p = 0.559). The effect of variance in interval range (contrasting block 7 with the average of blocks 4 and 6) was significant (t = 3.20, p = 0.002). The more detailed trial-level correlation analysis showed performance correlated negatively with the variance of the pattern intervals (correlation coefficient = ‑0.336, p < 0.001). There was no significant correlation between the magnitude of the final interval and performance (correlation coefficient ‑0.298, p = 0.147). Posthoc multiple comparison analysis showed performance for musically important final intervals (perfect fourth and fifth, 5 and 7 semitones, respectively) was significantly lower than that for 1 semitone. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5319

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• QUESTION: Why do musically important final intervals (fourth, fifth) worsen rather than improve detection? A genuinely counterintuitive result worth chasing.

Related

• Deviant-pattern detection worsens as within-pattern interval variance rises but ignores interval magnitude (similarity 0.95)
• Deviation detection worsens as pattern intervals vary more. (similarity 0.91)
• Greater interval variance in tone patterns impairs relative pitch detection (similarity 0.91)
• Large melodic intervals and multiple transpositions each independently impair deviant detection. (similarity 0.88)
• Familiar consonant final intervals hinder deviant-tone detection relative to small ones (similarity 0.86)
• Transposing a tone pattern impairs detection, while exact repetition does not help. (similarity 0.85)
• Listeners cannot use a repeated pattern as a template for transposed comparisons (similarity 0.84)
• Interval patterns are recognized by relative pitch relations, not absolute frequencies (similarity 0.83)
• Pattern interval size, transposition, repetition, and variance all shape pitch pattern judgment accuracy (similarity 0.83)
• Deviant pitch patterns were detected from the last interval of a six-tone sequence. (similarity 0.82)
• Deviant intervals were always four semitones and thus the difference was always 1-3 semitones (similarity 0.82)
• Deviant tone pattern detection is tested by graded practice then randomized no-feedback blocks. (similarity 0.81)
• Deviant-tone-pattern detection trials present four six-tone patterns with one interval altered. (similarity 0.80)
• Large transpositions impair pitch pattern detection more than small ones (similarity 0.80)
• Even trained musicians have great difficulty detecting deviant melodic patterns under transposition (similarity 0.80)