The effect of pitch change direction on melodic interval ranking

Abstract

Our previous study showed that listeners had significantly lower ascending interval ranking thresholds than descending ones. Experiment 1 tested whether the effect on interval ranking of local pitch change direction within intervals relies on the global pitch change direction between intervals. Both ascending and descending intervals were ranked in both the 2nd-interval-higher and lower conditions. Ascending interval ranking thresholds were significantly lower than descending ones in the 2nd-interval-higher conditions, but similar to or higher than descending ones in the 2nd-interval-lower conditions. Interval ranking was distracted when the global pitch change between intervals and local pitch change within intervals were in the opposite direction. To better simulate music listening, Experiment 2 measured ascending and descending interval ranking in the 3-tone conditions, where the three tones forming two intervals were played back to back in time. The 4-tone conditions with a 1-sec temporal gap between intervals were also tested. Similar ascending and descending interval ranking thresholds were observed when the global pitch change between intervals and local pitch change within intervals had the same direction. Interval ranking thresholds were significantly lower in the 4-tone conditions than in the 3-tone conditions, indicating that interval ranking was enhanced by the temporal gap between intervals.