The Physics and Psychophysics of Music

The Physics and Psychophysics of Music

A Glance at Psychophysics Software Programs

Visual stimulation with precise control of stimulus has transformed the field of psychophysics since the introduction of personal computers. Luminance and chromatic features of stimulus, timing, and position of the stimulus are the main features that could be defined using programs written specifically for psychophysical experiments. In this manuscript, software used for the psychophysical expe...

Vibrato in music – physics and psychophysics

Vibrato is a common feature of most present-day musical performances, from violins to opera singers, but its ubiquity has developed only since about the beginning of the nineteenth century. To some people it is an essential feature of musical performance while to others it is an unpleasant distortion of a musical experience. There are several different types of vibrato depending upon the person...

Commentary on Cook & Fujisawa’s “The Psychophysics of Harmony Perception: Harmony is a Three-Tone Phenomenon”

Cook & Fujisawa (2006) point out that, contrary to the predictions of psychoacoustic models, the diminished triad is more consonant and prevalent in western tonal music than the augmented. A possible simple explanation is that the diminished triad often functions as an incomplete dominant (major-minor) seventh chord, the most prevalent tetrad in mainstream tonal music. Submitted 2006 July 12; a...

Music expertise shapes audiovisual temporal integration windows for speech, sinewave speech, and music

This psychophysics study used musicians as a model to investigate whether musical expertise shapes the temporal integration window for audiovisual speech, sinewave speech, or music. Musicians and non-musicians judged the audiovisual synchrony of speech, sinewave analogs of speech, and music stimuli at 13 audiovisual stimulus onset asynchronies (±360, ±300 ±240, ±180, ±120, ±60, and 0 ms). Furth...