From: malcolm@interval.com (Malcolm Slaney)
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 1994 18:44:48 -0700
Subject: Tempo Perception at CCRMA
Message-Id: <9410170141.AA08629@interval.interval.com>

This week's CCRMA Hearing Seminar features a discussion of tempo
perception.  Dan Levitin (former active Hearing Seminar participant) and
Perry Cook (CCRMA) will discuss their work on how well we remember the
tempo of familiar songs.

Last year, many of you will remember Dan's work on whether people have
perfect pitch.  His study asked people to sing familiar songs and measured
how close they were to the original pitch of the song.  People might not be
able to sing a Middle-C, but most subjects sang the songs at the right
pitch (within a semi-tone)!

Do people do as well with tempo?  Or is it an artifact of an intrinsic
tempo for each song?  Come to CCRMA to find out more!  An abstract is
attached to the end of this note.

        Who:    Dan Levitin (U. of Oregon and CCRMA) Perry Cook (CCRMA)
        What:   Tempo Perception
        When:   Thursday October 20 at 11AM
        Where:  CCRMA Library (Top Floor of the Knoll)

-- Malcolm



From: Daniel Levitin <levitin@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
Subject: Abstract for Tempo Talk


Memory for the Tempo of Familiar Songs

        Daniel Levitin (University of Oregon and CCRMA)
        Perry Cook (CCRMA)

        In a previous study ("Absolute Memory for Musical Pitch,"
Perception & Psychophysics, October, 1994) I presented evidence that
people tend to remember the actual pitches of familiar melodies,
suggesting that some form of latent absolute pitch may be resident in
a significant percentage of people.  Perry Cook and I are now
gathering evidence that people also seem to remember - with a great
degree of accuracy - the actual tempos of familiar songs.  Subjects
asked to sing songs they know well from memory tend to sing within a
JND of the proper tempo (3-5%).  Perry and I will discuss this work,
the methodology, findings, and control studies we performed to control
for possible artifacts.