Representativeness of Diatonic Structure and Detection of Out-of-Scale Notes

Abstract

This paper describes four experiments investigating the detection of out-of-scale notes following brief, diatonic-conformant context sequences. Subjects were presented with diatonic scale-conformant three-note sequences of different kinds and were asked after each one to indicate to what extent subsequent probe notes were heard as “fitting”. Listeners more clearly identified out-of-scale notes following sequences comprised of pitch-class sets which can be formed in many places within the diatonic scale — such as F-C-D or F-G-D — than they could when the context sequences consisted of pitch-class sets which can occur in fewer places in the diatonic scale, such as F-G-C. The results supported the hypothesis that the extent to which context sequences were representative of diatonic scale structure influenced listeners’ judgments.