title: The role of spectral and dynamic cues in imagery for musical timbre.
abstract: The musical quality of timbre is based on both spectral and dynamic acoustic cues. Four 2-part experiments examined whether these properties are represented in the mental image of a musical timbre. Experiment 1 established that imagery occurs for timbre variations within a single musical instrument, using plucked and bowed tones from a cello. Experiments 2 and 3 used synthetic stimuli that varied in either spectral or dynamic properties only, to investigate imagery with strict acoustic control over the stimuli. Experiment 4 explored whether the dimension of loudness is stored in an auditory image. Spectral properties appear to play a much larger role than dynamic properties in imagery for musical timbre.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pitt
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Crowder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008144:Loudness Perception; D009146:Music; D010897:Pitch Discrimination; D011930:Reaction Time; D013018:Sound Spectrography