Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

The human brain perceives pitch through two primary mechanisms reflected in place theory and frequency theory. Each mechanism describes how sound waves are interpreted as specific pitches by the brain, offering insights into the intricate processes of auditory perception.
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by identifying...

Auditory Perception

Auditory Perception

The auditory system is essential for sound perception, utilizing various critical structures. When sound waves enter the outer ear, they travel through the ear canal and cause the eardrum to vibrate. These vibrations are then transmitted to the middle ear, where three tiny bones – the malleus, incus, and stapes – amplify the sound. This amplification is crucial, as it ensures that the sound vibrations are strong enough to be conveyed to the inner ear. These vibrations then reach the cochlea, a...

Perception of Sound Waves

Perception of Sound Waves

The human ear is not equally sensitive to all frequencies in the audible range. It may perceive sound waves with the same pressure but different frequencies as having different loudness. Moreover, the perception of sound waves depends on the health of an individual's ears, which decays with age. The health of one's ears may also be affected by regular exposure to loud noises.
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same frequency...

Factors Affecting Perception

Factors Affecting Perception

Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...

Hearing

Hearing

When we hear a sound, our nervous system is detecting sound waves—pressure waves of mechanical energy traveling through a medium. The frequency of the wave is perceived as pitch, while the amplitude is perceived as loudness.

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt principles provide a framework for understanding how humans perceive objects as unified wholes within their context. These principles are essential in explaining the cognitive processes that make sense of complex visual stimuli by organizing them into coherent groups. One fundamental principle is proximity, which posits that objects located close to each other are perceived as a collective group. For instance, when dots are positioned near one another, the visual system interprets them...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Evaluating Accuracy of Plain Magnetic Resonance Imaging or Arthrogram versus Wrist Arthroscopy in the Diagnosis of Scapholunate Interosseous Ligament Injury.

Journal of hand and microsurgery·2022

Same author

Capitate shortening osteotomy and vascularized bone grafting for Kienböck's disease in ulnar positive or neutral wrists.

The Journal of hand surgery, European volume·2021

Same author

Rare Constructions Are More Often Sentence-Initial.

Cognitive science·2019

Same author

Analysis of magnetic resonance imaging-confirmed soft tissue injury pattern in simple elbow dislocations.

Journal of shoulder and elbow surgery·2018

Same author

Medium- to long-term results of a randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of arthoscopic-subacromial decompression versus mini-open repair for the treatment of medium-sized rotator cuff tears.

Shoulder & elbow·2016

Same author

Information Density and Syntactic Repetition.

Cognitive science·2015

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 1, 2026

A Psychophysics Paradigm for the Collection and Analysis of Similarity Judgments

A Psychophysics Paradigm for the Collection and Analysis of Similarity Judgments

Published on: March 1, 2022

A probabilistic model of melody perception.

David Temperley¹

¹Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.

Cognitive Science

|June 4, 2011

Summary

This study introduces a probabilistic model for melody perception, using Bayesian reasoning to infer musical keys and melody probabilities. The model accurately identifies keys and predicts note expectations, enhancing music cognition research.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Music Theory
Computational Auditory Processing

Background:

Melody perception involves inferring underlying musical structures, like keys, from sequences of notes.
Probabilistic models offer a framework for understanding how listeners might process musical information and make predictions.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop and test a probabilistic model for melody perception that infers musical key and melody probability.
To evaluate the model's performance on key identification, melodic expectation judgments, and error detection tasks.

Main Methods:

Utilized Bayesian reasoning to infer musical key (structure) from note patterns (surface).
Proposed a generative model based on principles of pitch range, interval size, and key-specific note distributions.

More Related Videos

fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals

fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals

Published on: May 23, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 1, 2026

A Psychophysics Paradigm for the Collection and Analysis of Similarity Judgments

A Psychophysics Paradigm for the Collection and Analysis of Similarity Judgments

Published on: March 1, 2022

fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals

fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals

Published on: May 23, 2017

Tested the model against folksong key identification, human melodic expectation data, and melody completion tasks.

Main Results:

The model successfully identified keys of folksong melodies.
Model's probability judgments for melodic expectations aligned with human perception data.
The model demonstrated efficacy in detecting incorrect notes by assigning them lower probabilities.

Conclusions:

The proposed probabilistic model provides a robust framework for understanding melody perception and key inference.
The model's alignment with human data suggests its validity in explaining cognitive processes in music listening.
This approach offers potential for applications in music information retrieval and computational musicology.