136 vocab words

flat

Below true or normal pitch. Also, in musical notation, a flat is used to designate that a note is to be played one semitone lower than its indicated position on the musical staff.

meter

Meter is the grouping of beats in a regularly recurring pattern (the bar or measure) defined by accentuation. Meter (whether explicitly marked or only sensed) provides the temporal framework of the music within which rhythm is established and perceived.

T/F

Scientists have found that most non-human animals are able to entrain to the beat in a piece of music.

tonality

The character of a piece of music as determined by the key in which it is played or the relations between the notes of a scale or key. Also refers to the use of conventional keys and harmony as the basis of musical composition, e.g. Western tonal music.

key

a group of notes based on a particular note and comprising a scale, regarded as forming the tonal basis of a piece or passage of music, e.g. the key of E minor.

phrase

a group of notes forming a distinct unit within a longer passage.

basal ganglia

a group of nuclei in the brain interconnected with the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and brainstem. The basal ganglia are associated with a variety of functions: motor control, cognition, emotions, and learning

chord

a group of three or more notes sounded together. Chords are a basis of harmony and chord progressions (sequences of chords).

thalamus

a large mass of functionally related groups of neurons (nuclei) in the middle of the brain. The thalamus is widely believed to control the flow of sensory information to the cortex.

threshold

a limit below which a stimulus causes no reaction

beat

a main accent or rhythmic unit in music

decibel

a measure of the magnitude of a physical quantity, such as sound intensity. The decibel is a logarithmic unit of measurement that correlates with human perception of loudness

pitch chroma (pitch class)

a music-theoretic term referring to the identity of a musical note (e.g. C, F, A), regardless of the octave (register) in which that note is played.

domain general

a psychological process is domain general if it applies to many different psychological domains, such as language, music, mathematical reasoning, and spatial ability.

gyrus

a ridge on the surface of the cortex

melody

a sequence of single notes

mode

a set of musical notes forming a scale from which melodies and harmonies are constructed. Modes are distinguished by the pattern of skips (over semitones) between adjacent notes of the scale. Major and minor keys are modes that are distinguished from each other by the patterns of skips between adjacent notes of their scales.

note

a single tone associated with a specific pitch. The pitched sound made by a musical instrument or the human voice. Also, note refers to the written sign representing the pitch and duration of such a sound in a musical score

cochlea

a snail-shaped, fluid-filled structure within the ear in which the apparatus for converting sound waves to neural signals is housed

pure tone

a sound consisting of a single frequency (sine wave).

complex tone

a sound consisting of multiple frequencies, usually the fundamental frequency and its higher harmonics (integer multiples of the fundamental frequency.)

discrimination task

a task that requires determining whether two stimuli are the same or different

tactus

a term for beat which refers to the perceived pulse of the music, usually indicated by the rate at which individuals naturally tap their feet to music.

harmonic, partial, or overtone

a tone (frequency) that is a part of the harmonic series above the fundamental frequency of the tone. A component of any oscillation whose frequency is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency.

neuron

a type of cell in the nervous system that communicates with other neurons by transmitting electrical impulses, often across long distances. An information processing unit in the brain.

transposition

copying a piece of music exactly into another key. For example, transposing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" from the key of C major to the key of E major.

MRI

magnetic resonance imaging. A non-invasive method for imaging different tissue types in living matter. Functional MRI (fMRI) is used to measure very small changes in blood oxygenation that are correlated with neural activity in the brain, so that inferences can be made about the role of specific brain regions in various psychological functions.

isochronous

occupying equal time, i.e. an equal amount of time between onsets of events

major

one of the two dominant modes in Western tonal music. Also referred to as the Ionian mode

whole, half, quarter, eight, sixteenth notes

relative durations of notes. A whole note lasts the entire length of a measure. The duration of a quarter note is one quarter of the measure.

periodicity

similar to the concept of frequency, periodicity refers to the quality of something recurring at some fixed time interval

dominant

the fifth note of the diatonic scale of any key

downbeat

the first beat of a measure (bar)

just-noticeable difference (JND)

the smallest difference that can be noticed between two stimuli, for example two tones with different frequencies

tempo

the speed at which a passage of music is or should be played. Typically indicated in beats per minute (bpm).

rhythm

the systematic arrangement (grouping) of musical sounds, principally according to duration and periodic stress

inter-onset-interval

the time between the onsets of two events

superior temporal gyrus

the top part of the temporal lobe that largely encompasses the auditory cortex tactus

pitch height

the psychological dimension of pitch that is usually perceived as varying from low to high. The pitch height of any complex tone increases as fundamental frequency increases.

pitch

the quality of a sound governed by the rate (frequency) of vibrations producing it; the degree of highness or lowness of a tone

frequency

the rate at which something occurs or is repeated over a particular period of time. Measured in cycles/second (Hz).

ascending auditory pathway

the set of brain regions between the cochlea in the ear and the auditory cortex in the brain

diatonic scale

the set of seven notes that belong to a key

hertz

the unit of frequency, defined as the number of cycles or complete oscillations per second

EEG

electroencephalography. Recordings of the brain's electrical activity, typically from the surface of the scalp or in some cases directly from the surface of the cortex

entrainment

falling into synchrony with

harmony

general term used to refer to the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions

bottom-up

hierarchical organization of the flow of information in the brain, from low-level detail to high-level structures such as objects, categories, or concepts.

fMRI

A non-invasive imaging method, used to measure very small changes in blood oxygenation (BOLD signals) that are correlated with neural activity in the brain.

FALSE

A person's music preferences are generally a good indicator of how "conscientious" they are. TRUE/FALSE

TRUE

A person's music preferences are generally a good indicator of how "open to new experiences" they are. TRUE/FALSE

sharp

Above true or normal pitch. Also, in musical notation, a sharp is used to designate that a note is to be played one semitone higher than its indicated position on the musical staff.

emotionally salient information

An early communicative system in humans likely focused on the communication of ______________

No

Do synchrony and isochrony refer to the same thing?

the tempo

In order to determine whether a non-human animal is able to synchronize with the beat in a piece of music, it is necessary to change which aspect of the music?

Amusia (tone deafness)

Inability to detect frequency changes

-<2 year-old infants -4 year-old children -adults -cockatoos -neonates

Increased social cooperation following an activity in which an individual's sensory experience is synchronized with one or more individuals has been established experimentally in (check all that apply):

flutes

The discovery of which of the following instruments provides concrete evidence that humans made music tens of thousands of years ago?

minor

The other dominant mode in Western tonal music. Also referred to as the Aeolian mode

spectrum

the distribution of energy across different frequencies

T/F

The presence of song and song-related behaviors has been established in all indigenous human cultures for which ethnographic data exist.

tempo

The quantity of "beats per minute (bpm)" is used to designate the __________ of a piece.

semitone

The smallest interval used in classical Western music, equal to a twelfth of an octave or half of a whole tone; the difference between two notes that are one semitone apart is also called a half step.

inter-onset-interval

The time between the onsets of two events.

-Arousal -Religiosity -Formality -Sentimentality

Which of the following is NOT a major factor that explains variation in songs across human cultures throughout the world?

1. Adaptationist/Non-adaptationist 2. disruptive/advantageous

_______________theories for the long-standing existence of music in human societies posit that musical behaviors and abilities are evolutionarily _________________

whole tone

a basic interval in classical Western music, equal to two semitones and separating, for example, the first and second notes of an ordinary scale (such as C and D, or E and F sharp). A whole tone forms an interval of a major second. Two notes that are one whole tone apart are said to be separated by a whole step.

sulcus

a cleft/trough on the surface of the brain

critical band

a frequency region within which the signals associated with multiple inputs, e.g. tones, can interact.

lobe (frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital)

a general division of the brain

sonogram, spectrogram

a graphic representation of a sound, showing how the distribution of energy at different frequencies changes through time. [time/frequency/amplitude]

priming

activating parts of particular representations or associations in memory just before carrying out an action or task

stream

an apparent source of sound or sequence of auditory objects

accent

an emphasis on a particular note or chord

measure, bar

any of the sections, typically of equal time value, into which a musical composition is divided, shown on a score by vertical lines across the staff.

dissociation

in neuropsychology, two skills are dissociated when a change in one skill is observed with no corresponding change in the other skill.

dissonance

lack of harmony among musical notes. Associated with the subjective experience of unpleasantness, ugliness, dysphonia, roughness, or tenseness evoked by sounds.

Heschl's gyrus

part of the superior temporal gyrus that is largely synonymous with primary auditory cortex, the main recipient of input from the auditory thalamus.

empirical

related to knowledge acquired from observation. Empirical research tests hypotheses through experiment or observation.

tonic

relating to the first note in a scale. The tonic is the note after which a key is named, e.g. the pitch class G is the tonic of G-major and also G-minor. Typically the most perceptually stable note in a key.

relative pitch

the ability to perceive and remember frequency relationships between pitches. Relative pitch is what allows us to recognize a melody played in a different key or register.

absolute pitch

the ability to recognize the pitch of a note or produce any given note without an external reference. Also called perfect pitch.

cerebral cortex

the bulk of what we think of as the brain. Alone and in combination, different areas of the cerebral cortex play key roles in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, action, language, music, emotion, and consciousness

selective attention

the capacity for or process of reacting to certain stimuli selectively when several occur simultaneously

timbre

the character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from its pitch and intensity. Timbre is what gives instruments their identity.

consonance

the combination of notes that are in harmony with each other due to the relationship between their frequencies. Usually associated with the subjective experience of pleasantness, euphoniousness, and smoothness of sounds.

interval

the difference in pitch between two musical sounds

valence

the dimension of affect that extends from positive to negative. Joy is an emotion that has high positive valence, and grief is an emotion that has high negative valence.

register

the frequency/pitch range that an instrument is playing or vocalist is singing in. For example, a piccolo is played in a much higher register compared to a bass.

modulation

the harmonic movement of a piece of music from one key to another. Similar to transposition, but different in that what is played in the new key need not be an exact copy of what was played in the old key.

amplitude modulation

the increases and decreases in intensity/size of a wave

octave

the interval formed between two notes, such that one has exactly twice the frequency of the other. In Western tonal music, the octave is divided into 12 equally spaced steps (semitones).

fundamental frequency

the lowest frequency produced by the oscillation of the whole of an object, as distinct from the higher harmonics (integer multiples) of that frequency. The fundamental frequency is typically equivalent to the perceived pitch of a sound.

frequency modulation

the modulation of a wave by varying its frequency. The rising and falling pitch of an ambulance siren is an example of frequency modulation.

auditory cortex

the part of the cerebral cortex, situated on the superior temporal gyrus, that responds to auditory information, including music, speech, and environmental sounds

lateral

to the side

caudal

toward the back, the rear, the tail

rostral

toward the front

medial

toward the middle