Marcus T Pearce
Biographic Data
| ID | 1662458 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marcus T Pearce |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marcus T |
| FAMILY NAME | Pearce |
| SIGNATURE | PEARCE M T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Queen Mary University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1282-431X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Abstract representations underlie rhythm perception and production
Rhythm, such as in music, contains structure in the form of rhythmic patterns: the more or less predictable successions of longer and shorter intervals (i.e., the "morse code" of the rhythm). Listeners can use rhythmic patterns to predict the timing of sounds and guide their perception and action. It is still unclear how rhythmic patterns are represented in the human mind. Here, we used a probabilistic model of auditory expectations to simulate t…
Relationships between surprise, liking, and error perception in musical listening
A large part of musical enjoyment stems from the interplay between predictability and surprise that evolves throughout a melody, and yet more extreme violation of musical predictions results in perception of an error. The aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship between liking and predictability in music and establish whether a relationship exists between the degree of unpredictability of a pitch and perception of an error.…
Perception of Thematic Structure in Music Over Short and Long Timescales
Thematic structure is valued highly in music theory and in many models of music cognition. However, strong empirical evidence supporting its perception is scarce. To provide a basis for experimental research, Hall and Pearce (2021) developed a probabilistic computational model of the cognitive processes underlying perception of thematic structure. The model hypothezises that thematic structures become perceptible due to the statistical regulariti…
Auditory imagery ability influences accuracy when singing with altered auditory feedback
In this preliminary study, we explored the relationship between auditory imagery ability and the maintenance of tonal and temporal accuracy when singing and audiating with altered auditory feedback (AAF). Actively performing participants sang and audiated (sang mentally but not aloud) a self-selected piece in AAF conditions, including upward pitch-shifts and delayed auditory feedback (DAF), and with speech distraction. Participants with higher se…
Dynamic complexity in audiovisual aesthetics
The appreciation of dance, film, and other temporal art forms relies on the continuous integration of auditory and visual streams. In this study, we investigate how bimodal audiovisual preferences arise from unimodal auditory and visual preferences. To this end, we created and validated the open-resource complexity in audiovisual aesthetics stimulus set (https://osf.io/e5uh9/), consisting of 120 short, dynamic, and abstract auditory, visual and a…
Worlds apart? Testing the cultural distance hypothesis in music perception of Chinese and Western listeners
According to the cultural distance hypothesis (CDH), individuals learn culture-specific statistical structures in music as internal stylistic models and use these models in predictive processing of music, with musical structures closer to their home culture being easier to predict. This cultural distance effect may be affected by domain-specific (musical ability) and domain-general individual characteristics (openness, implicit cultural bias). To…
Probabilistic modelling of microtiming perception
Music performances are rich in systematic temporal irregularities called "microtiming", too fine-grained to be notated in a musical score but important for musical expression and communication. Several studies have examined listeners' preference for rhythms varying in microtiming, but few have addressed precisely how microtiming is perceived, especially in terms of cognitive mechanisms, making the empirical evidence difficult to interpret. Here w…
Musical aesthetic sensitivity
Empirical aesthetics has mainly focused on general and simple relations between stimulus features and aesthetic appreciation. Consequently, to explain why people differ so much in what they like and prefer continues to be a challenge for the field. One possible reason is that people differ in their aesthetic sensitivity, that is, the extent to which they weigh certain stimulus features. Studies have shown that people vary substantially in their a…
Reassessing Syntax-Related ERP Components Using Popular Music Chord Sequences
Electroencephalographic responses to unexpected musical events allow researchers to test listeners’ internal models of syntax. One major challenge is dissociating cognitive syntactic violations—based on the abstract identity of a particular musical structure—from unexpected acoustic features. Despite careful controls in past studies, recent work by Bigand, Delbe, Poulin-Carronnat, Leman, and Tillmann (2014) has argued that ERP findings attributed…
A model of large-scale thematic structure
The coherent organisation of thematic material into large-scale structures within a composition is an important concept in both traditional and cognitive theories of music. However, empirical evidence supporting their perception is scarce. Providing a more nuanced approach, this paper introduces a computational model of hypothesised cognitive mechanisms underlying perception of large-scale thematic structure. Repetition detection based on statist…
Chills in music
©American Psychological Association, 2021. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000341
A Computational Cognitive Model for the Analysis and Generation of Voice Leadings
Voice leading is a common task in Western music composition whose conventions are consistent with fundamental principles of auditory perception. Here we introduce a computational cognitive model of voice leading, intended both for analyzing voice-leading practices within encoded musical corpora and for generating new voice leadings for unseen chord sequences. This model is feature-based, quantifying the desirability of a given voice leading on th…
Simulating melodic and harmonic expectations for tonal cadences using probabilistic models
This study examines how the mind’s predictive mechanisms contribute to the perception of cadential closure during music listening. Using the Information Dynamics of Music model (or IDyOM) to simulate the formation of schematic expectations—a finite-context (or n-gram) model that predicts the next event in a musical stimulus by acquiring knowledge through unsupervised statistical learning of sequential structure—we predict the terminal melodic and…
Compression-based Modelling of Musical Similarity Perception
peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=nnmr20
Neuroaesthetics
The field of neuroaesthetics has gained in popularity in recent years but also attracted criticism from the perspectives both of the humanities and the sciences. In an effort to consolidate research in the field, we characterize neuroaesthetics as the cognitive neuroscience of aesthetic experience, drawing on long traditions of research in empirical aesthetics on the one hand and cognitive neuroscience on the other. We clarify the aims and scope …
Multiple Viewpoint Systems
We discuss the problem of automatic four-part harmonization: given a soprano part, add alto, tenor and bass in accordance with the compositional practices of a particular musical era. In particular, we focus on the development of representational and modelling techniques, within the framework of multiple viewpoint systems and Prediction by Partial Match (PPM), for the creation of statistical models of four-part harmony by machine learning. Our ul…
On the non-existence of music
We argue for an approach to the theory of music which starts from the position that music is primarily a construct of human minds (and secondarily a social construct) and contrast it with the approach implicit in the work of some music theorists, which treats music as though it were an externally defined quasi-Platonic absolute. We argue that a natural conclusion of this approach is that music theory, while already being a kind of folk psychology…
Towards Greater Objectivity in Music Theory
We present evidence for a relationship between two objective measures of the information dynamics of music and points of structural importance in the music as analysed by an expert musicologist. Our approach is motivated by ecological validity: rather than taking musical stimuli and artificially simplifying them to make their study tractable, we have sought and found music which is appropriate to our study. We give a novel, detailed analysis of o…
Improved Methods for Statistical Modelling of Monophonic Music
N-Gram based models have been used for a variety of musical tasks including computer-assisted composition, machine improvisation, music information retrieval, stylistic analysis and cognitive modelling. We present an application-independent evaluation of some recent techniques for improving the performance of a subclass of n-gram models on a range of monophonic music data. We have applied these techniques incrementally to eight melodic datasets u…
Motivations and Methodologies for Automation of the Compositional Process
Our aim in this paper is to clarify the range of motivations that have inspired the development of computer programs for the composition of music. We consider this to be important since different methodologies are appropriate for different motivations and goals. We argue that a widespread failure to specify the motivations and goals involved has lead to a methodological malaise in music related research. A brief consideration of some of the earli…
Neuroaesthetics
The field of neuroaesthetics has gained in popularity in recent years but also attracted criticism from the perspectives both of the humanities and the sciences. In an effort to consolidate research in the field, we characterize neuroaesthetics as the cognitive neuroscience of aesthetic experience, drawing on long traditions of research in empirical aesthetics on the one hand and cognitive neuroscience on the other. We clarify the aims and scope …
Improved Methods for Statistical Modelling of Monophonic Music
N-Gram based models have been used for a variety of musical tasks including computer-assisted composition, machine improvisation, music information retrieval, stylistic analysis and cognitive modelling. We present an application-independent evaluation of some recent techniques for improving the performance of a subclass of n-gram models on a range of monophonic music data. We have applied these techniques incrementally to eight melodic datasets u…
Multiple Viewpoint Systems
We discuss the problem of automatic four-part harmonization: given a soprano part, add alto, tenor and bass in accordance with the compositional practices of a particular musical era. In particular, we focus on the development of representational and modelling techniques, within the framework of multiple viewpoint systems and Prediction by Partial Match (PPM), for the creation of statistical models of four-part harmony by machine learning. Our ul…
Motivations and Methodologies for Automation of the Compositional Process
Our aim in this paper is to clarify the range of motivations that have inspired the development of computer programs for the composition of music. We consider this to be important since different methodologies are appropriate for different motivations and goals. We argue that a widespread failure to specify the motivations and goals involved has lead to a methodological malaise in music related research. A brief consideration of some of the earli…
Improved Methods for Statistical Modelling of Monophonic Music
N-Gram based models have been used for a variety of musical tasks including computer-assisted composition, machine improvisation, music information retrieval, stylistic analysis and cognitive modelling. We present an application-independent evaluation of some recent techniques for improving the performance of a subclass of n-gram models on a range of monophonic music data. We have applied these techniques incrementally to eight melodic datasets u…
Towards Greater Objectivity in Music Theory
We present evidence for a relationship between two objective measures of the information dynamics of music and points of structural importance in the music as analysed by an expert musicologist. Our approach is motivated by ecological validity: rather than taking musical stimuli and artificially simplifying them to make their study tractable, we have sought and found music which is appropriate to our study. We give a novel, detailed analysis of o…
On the non-existence of music
We argue for an approach to the theory of music which starts from the position that music is primarily a construct of human minds (and secondarily a social construct) and contrast it with the approach implicit in the work of some music theorists, which treats music as though it were an externally defined quasi-Platonic absolute. We argue that a natural conclusion of this approach is that music theory, while already being a kind of folk psychology…
Multiple Viewpoint Systems
We discuss the problem of automatic four-part harmonization: given a soprano part, add alto, tenor and bass in accordance with the compositional practices of a particular musical era. In particular, we focus on the development of representational and modelling techniques, within the framework of multiple viewpoint systems and Prediction by Partial Match (PPM), for the creation of statistical models of four-part harmony by machine learning. Our ul…
Neuroaesthetics
The field of neuroaesthetics has gained in popularity in recent years but also attracted criticism from the perspectives both of the humanities and the sciences. In an effort to consolidate research in the field, we characterize neuroaesthetics as the cognitive neuroscience of aesthetic experience, drawing on long traditions of research in empirical aesthetics on the one hand and cognitive neuroscience on the other. We clarify the aims and scope …
Compression-based Modelling of Musical Similarity Perception
peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=nnmr20
Simulating melodic and harmonic expectations for tonal cadences using probabilistic models
This study examines how the mind’s predictive mechanisms contribute to the perception of cadential closure during music listening. Using the Information Dynamics of Music model (or IDyOM) to simulate the formation of schematic expectations—a finite-context (or n-gram) model that predicts the next event in a musical stimulus by acquiring knowledge through unsupervised statistical learning of sequential structure—we predict the terminal melodic and…
A Computational Cognitive Model for the Analysis and Generation of Voice Leadings
Voice leading is a common task in Western music composition whose conventions are consistent with fundamental principles of auditory perception. Here we introduce a computational cognitive model of voice leading, intended both for analyzing voice-leading practices within encoded musical corpora and for generating new voice leadings for unseen chord sequences. This model is feature-based, quantifying the desirability of a given voice leading on th…
Reassessing Syntax-Related ERP Components Using Popular Music Chord Sequences
Electroencephalographic responses to unexpected musical events allow researchers to test listeners’ internal models of syntax. One major challenge is dissociating cognitive syntactic violations—based on the abstract identity of a particular musical structure—from unexpected acoustic features. Despite careful controls in past studies, recent work by Bigand, Delbe, Poulin-Carronnat, Leman, and Tillmann (2014) has argued that ERP findings attributed…
A model of large-scale thematic structure
The coherent organisation of thematic material into large-scale structures within a composition is an important concept in both traditional and cognitive theories of music. However, empirical evidence supporting their perception is scarce. Providing a more nuanced approach, this paper introduces a computational model of hypothesised cognitive mechanisms underlying perception of large-scale thematic structure. Repetition detection based on statist…
Chills in music
©American Psychological Association, 2021. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000341
Musical aesthetic sensitivity
Empirical aesthetics has mainly focused on general and simple relations between stimulus features and aesthetic appreciation. Consequently, to explain why people differ so much in what they like and prefer continues to be a challenge for the field. One possible reason is that people differ in their aesthetic sensitivity, that is, the extent to which they weigh certain stimulus features. Studies have shown that people vary substantially in their a…
Worlds apart? Testing the cultural distance hypothesis in music perception of Chinese and Western listeners
According to the cultural distance hypothesis (CDH), individuals learn culture-specific statistical structures in music as internal stylistic models and use these models in predictive processing of music, with musical structures closer to their home culture being easier to predict. This cultural distance effect may be affected by domain-specific (musical ability) and domain-general individual characteristics (openness, implicit cultural bias). To…
Probabilistic modelling of microtiming perception
Music performances are rich in systematic temporal irregularities called "microtiming", too fine-grained to be notated in a musical score but important for musical expression and communication. Several studies have examined listeners' preference for rhythms varying in microtiming, but few have addressed precisely how microtiming is perceived, especially in terms of cognitive mechanisms, making the empirical evidence difficult to interpret. Here w…
Auditory imagery ability influences accuracy when singing with altered auditory feedback
In this preliminary study, we explored the relationship between auditory imagery ability and the maintenance of tonal and temporal accuracy when singing and audiating with altered auditory feedback (AAF). Actively performing participants sang and audiated (sang mentally but not aloud) a self-selected piece in AAF conditions, including upward pitch-shifts and delayed auditory feedback (DAF), and with speech distraction. Participants with higher se…
Dynamic complexity in audiovisual aesthetics
The appreciation of dance, film, and other temporal art forms relies on the continuous integration of auditory and visual streams. In this study, we investigate how bimodal audiovisual preferences arise from unimodal auditory and visual preferences. To this end, we created and validated the open-resource complexity in audiovisual aesthetics stimulus set (https://osf.io/e5uh9/), consisting of 120 short, dynamic, and abstract auditory, visual and a…
Relationships between surprise, liking, and error perception in musical listening
A large part of musical enjoyment stems from the interplay between predictability and surprise that evolves throughout a melody, and yet more extreme violation of musical predictions results in perception of an error. The aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship between liking and predictability in music and establish whether a relationship exists between the degree of unpredictability of a pitch and perception of an error.…
Perception of Thematic Structure in Music Over Short and Long Timescales
Thematic structure is valued highly in music theory and in many models of music cognition. However, strong empirical evidence supporting its perception is scarce. To provide a basis for experimental research, Hall and Pearce (2021) developed a probabilistic computational model of the cognitive processes underlying perception of thematic structure. The model hypothezises that thematic structures become perceptible due to the statistical regulariti…
Abstract representations underlie rhythm perception and production
Rhythm, such as in music, contains structure in the form of rhythmic patterns: the more or less predictable successions of longer and shorter intervals (i.e., the "morse code" of the rhythm). Listeners can use rhythmic patterns to predict the timing of sounds and guide their perception and action. It is still unclear how rhythmic patterns are represented in the human mind. Here, we used a probabilistic model of auditory expectations to simulate t…
Neuroscience and Music Perception (16 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Music and Audio Processing (12 works) · Musical (10 works) · Cognitive psychology (9 works) · Music Technology and Sound Studies (9 works) · Perception (9 works) · Artificial Intelligence (8 works) · Cognitive science (8 works)