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Music perception and octave generalization in rhesus monkeys.

A A Wright1, J J Rivera, S H Hulse

  • 1Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas Medical School at Houston 77225, USA. anthony.a.wright@uth.tmc.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. General
|September 28, 2000
PubMed
Summary

Rhesus monkeys demonstrated octave generalization for familiar songs and tonal melodies, but not for random or atonal music. This suggests monkeys, like humans, perceive musical structure based on tonal relationships.

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Area of Science:

  • Animal Behavior
  • Music Perception
  • Comparative Cognition

Background:

  • Octave generalization, the ability to recognize a melody regardless of its pitch level, is a fundamental aspect of human music perception.
  • Understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying music perception in non-human primates can provide insights into the evolutionary origins of music.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether rhesus monkeys exhibit octave generalization for musical stimuli.
  • To determine if monkeys process tonal melodies as coherent gestalts that maintain identity across octave transpositions.

Main Methods:

  • Two rhesus monkeys were trained to discriminate between same and different musical passages.
  • Passages included familiar songs, tonal melodies, atonal melodies, and random-synthetic sequences, transposed by various octave intervals.

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  • Judgments of same/different were recorded for each stimulus type and transposition.

    • Main Results:

    • Monkeys showed complete octave generalization for familiar childhood songs and algorithmically generated tonal melodies.
    • No octave generalization was observed for random-synthetic melodies, atonal melodies, or individual notes.
    • Generalization was robust for whole-octave (1 and 2 octave) transpositions but diminished for fractional (0.5 and 1.5 octave) transpositions of familiar songs.

    Conclusions:

    • Tonal melodies are perceived as musical gestalts by rhesus monkeys, similar to humans.
    • Monkeys preserve the identity of tonal melodies when transposed by whole octaves, indicating chroma constancy.
    • These findings suggest shared neural mechanisms for music processing and memory in primates, with implications for the nature vs. nurture debate in music perception.