Skip to main content

Schema and gestalt: Testing the hypothesis of psychoneural isomorphism by computer simulation

  • II. From Pitch to Harmony
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Music, Gestalt, and Computing (JIC 1996)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1317))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The hypothesis of psychoneural isomorphism assumes a correspondence between mental representations of perceived phenomena and brain-states or cortical representations. This hypothesis is tested by means of a computer simulation of perceptual learning of context-dependent pitch. The method is based on an ecological modelling technique which is related to the Gestalt notion of molar behavior. A large scale computer simulation has been set up in which a physiological model is confronted with the strains and stresses of a realistic musical environment, in particular a sound recording of J.S.Bach's Das Wohltemperierte Klavier. The simulation suggests that the hypothesis of psychoneural isomorphism is a valid one. It predicts a particular schema or functional organization of neurons specialized in context-dependent pitch processing at the cortical level.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Arbib, M. (1995). Schema theory. In M. Arbib (Ed.), The handbook of brain theory and neural networks. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bregman, A. (1990). Auditory scene analysis: The perceptual organization of sound. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruhn, H. (1988). Harmonielehre als Grammatik der Musik. Munich: Psychologie Verlags Union.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carreras, F., & Leman, M. (1996). Distributed parallel architectures for the simulation of cognitive models in a realistic environment. In E. D'Hollander, G. Joubert, F. Peters, & D. Trystram (Eds.), Parallel computing: State-of-the art perspective. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herreman, B. (1996). Stageverslag: Stage Experimentele Psychologie aan het Instituut voor Psychoacustica en Elektronische Muziek Universiteit Gent (Tech. Rep.). Brussels: Vrije Universteit Brussel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Janata, P. (1995). ERP measures assay the degree of expectancy violation of harmonic contexts in music. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 153–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koffka, K. (1936). Principles of Gestalt psychology. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Köhler, W. (1924). Die physischen Gestalten in Ruhe und im stationären Zustand. Erlangen: Verlag der Philosophischen Akademie Erlangen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Köhler, W. (1971). Die Aufgabe der Gestaltpsychologie. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohonen, T. (1995). Self-organizing maps. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraaijveld, M., Mao, J., & Jain, A. (1992). A non-linear projection method based on Kohonen's topology preserving maps. In Proceedings of the 11th ICPR, International Conference on Pattern Recognition (pp. 41–45). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Comput. Soc. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krumhansl, C. (1990). Cognitive foundations of musical pitch. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langner, G. (1992). Periodicity coding in the auditory system. Hearing Research, 60, 115–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langner, G. (1997). Temporal processing of pitch in the auditory system. Journal of New Music Research, 26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leman, M. (1995). Music and schema theory: Cognitive foundations of systematic musicology. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leman, M. (1997). The convergence paradigm, ecological modelling and context-dependent pitch perception. Journal of New Music Research, 26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leman, M., & Carreras, F. (1996). The self-organization of stable perceptual maps in a realistic musical environment. In G. Assayah (Ed.), Proceedings of the Journées d'Informatique Musicale 1996. Caen: Univ. de Caen-IRCAM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moisala, P. (1995). Cognitive study of music as culture: Basic premises for cognitive ethnomusicology. Journal of New Music Research, 24, 8–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheerer, E. (1994). Psychoneural isomorphism: Historical background and current relevance. Philosophical Psychology, 7, 183–210.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schreiner, C. E., & Langner, G. (1988). Coding of temporal patterns in the central auditory nervous system. In G. Edelman, W. Gall, & W. Cowan (Eds.), Auditory function: Neurobiological bases of hearing. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seifert, U. (1991). The schema concept: A critical review of its development and current use in cognitive science and research on music perception. In A. Cammuri & C. Canepa (Eds.), Proceedings of the IXth Colloquium on Musical Informatics. Genova: AIMI/DIST.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepard, R. (1964). Circularity in judgments of relative pitch. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 36, 2346–2353.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepard, R., & Chipman, S. (1970). Second-order isomorphism of internal representations: Shapes of states. Cognitive Psychology, 1, 1–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Terhardt, E., Stoll, G., & Seewann, M. (1982). Algorithm for extraction of pitch and pitch salience from complex tonal signals. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 71, 679–688.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Immerseel, L., & Martens, J. (1992). Pitch and voiced/unvoiced determination with an auditory model. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 91, 3511–3526.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Marc Leman

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Leman, M., Carreras, F. (1997). Schema and gestalt: Testing the hypothesis of psychoneural isomorphism by computer simulation. In: Leman, M. (eds) Music, Gestalt, and Computing. JIC 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1317. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0034112

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0034112

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63526-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69591-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics