SENSITIVITY TO MUSICAL DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION IN ORGANIC PATIENTS! Howard Gardner, Jen Silverman, Gianfranco Denes, Carlo Semenza and Anne K. Rosenstiel (Aphasia Research Center, Boston Veterans Administration Hospital, Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, and Harvard Project Zero)
Listening to music appears to be a completely natural and direct experience: little training or knowledge seems necessary. For this reason, the contention that music is a symbolic form of communication (Langer, 1942; Meyer, 1956), which must be decoded by the listener, has sometimes been challenged. Yet this claim gains in initial plausibility once the widespread difficulty in assimilating non-Western or contemporary classical music is acknowledged. Moreover, in view of the fact that the music most highly valued in our culture (Beethoven symphonies, Bach cantatas) was initially rejected by critics and still proves incomprehensible to young children raised in this culture, the common-sense notion that music speaks "directly" to people seems improbable. Musical compositions, no less than printed texts or mathematical equations, must be decoded or "read" if their meanings are to be properly apprehended. A first step in examining musical meaning involves isolating the contributing factors. Following the practice of linguistics, one can speak of the denotation of a segment: the extra-musical objects, elements, or situations to which a selection refers. Denotation may be carried primarily or even exclusively by the melody alone: "Hail to the Chief" denotes the President of the United States to individuals who have never heard that piece's name. At other times the lyrics and title of a piece prove crucial for an appreciation of its extramusical meaning: comprehension of the song "Five-foot two, eyes of blue" depends in significant measure on knowledge of the lyrics. A separate, less widely appreciated aspect of musical meaning inheres in the connotation of a segment. Apart from the particular piece in which it happens to be embedded, a musical segment frequently conveys to a variety of listeners within the same culture a certain mood, affect, or physiognomic experience. Moreover, to detect connotation, general familiary with the muI The research reported herein was supported in part by the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke through grant NS-1140B-03 and by Harvard Project Zero. Dr. Denes is now at the University of Padua.
Cortex (1977) 13, 242-256.
Sensitivity to musical denotation and connotation
243
sical system suffices: there is no need to recall specific melodies. Thus a rising pitch sequence conveys a feeling of up-lifting which can be captured in words, dance, or pictures: a staccato passage connotes sharpness, crispness, brevity. While these connotations are often appreciated in only an implicit manner, it has proved possible to devise measures of this facet of meaning (Osgood, 1960; Gardner and Denes, 1973). To be sure, the entire set of meanings apprehended by a skilled listener far exceeds these elements. Such factors as timbre, pitch, phrasing, rhythm, all contribute: moreover, the occasions on which a piece has been encountered and the quality of the performance must also be taken into account. Yet, the capacities to appreciate facets of a segment's denotations and connotations probably define much of the commonality among the musical experiences of diverse individuals. Given that musical segments can communicate meaning, the question of what happens to this ability under conditions of brain-damage is of some interest. That musical understanding is represe{lted cortically is not disputed: yet few areas of cognition remain so obscure to the neuropsychologist. Evidence about the cortical representation of different musical capacities comes principally from two sources. There are, first of all, numerous studies of sound processing in normal individuals: these usually entail a dichotic presentation of various linguistic and non-linguistic sound patterns. By and large, these studies indicate that, in most individuals, the left hemisphere is strongly dominant for the processing of linguistic sounds (particularlv consonants); the right hemisphere plays a somewhat more important role in the processing of musical and other non-linguistic sound patterns (d. StuddertKennedy, 1974; Kimura, 1967, 1973; Gordon, 1970). A second line of evidence comes from the study of the fate of musical capacities in brain-damaged patients. Included here are studies of amusia, in which individuals known to have pre-morbid musical skills are examined in the wake of a stroke or tumor (Wertheim, 1963, 1969); the use of standardized tests (such as the Seashore) with individuals having unilateral brain injuries (Milner, 1962); and, again, studies of dichotic listening (Schulhoff and Goodglass, 1969). In this area, the evidence is somewhat more equivocal. Amusia seems to result more frequently from dominant than from minor hemisphere lesions (Ustwedt, 1937);· yet the use of standardized tests confirms the above generalization that the right hemisphere plays a somewhat more crucial role in the processing of musical sounds. Recently, these trends have been called into sharp question. Bever and Chiarello (1974) present evidence that the organization of musical abilities may differ, depending upon the degree of skill of the musician: musicallysophisticated individuals are likely to perceive musical stimuli in a more analytic manner, and to rely more heavily on the dominant hemisphere. Studies by Swisher and Hirsh (1972), Robinson and Solomon (1974), and
244
H. Gardner, ]. Silverman, G. Denes, C. Semenza and A. K.. Rosenstiel
Halperin, Nachshon and Carmon (1973) point up the crucial role assumed by the left hemisphere in processing any kind of sequential or rhythmic material, including musical series. General reviews of the literature now suggest that, more so than other cognitive capacities, musical ability may be organized differently, or across diverse cortical areas, in different individuals (Gardner, 1975; Wertheim and Botez, 1961; Zangwill, 1975). In the present set of studies an attempt has been made to subdivide the perception of music into component parts, while retaining a level of meaningfulness in the resultant stimuli. A set of simple tasks has been devised in order to reveal the fate in organic patients of sensitivity to denotative and connotative facets of music. In each case the patient hears a brief musical stimulus and is then required to point to that picture in a set which most closely corresponds to the "meaning" (or symbolic significance) of the auditory sequence. Of special interest were the following questions: (1) Are different regions of the brain differentially sensitive to diverse aspects of musical meaning? Information of the question was gained by comparing the performance on both tests of unilaterally left and unilaterally right brain-damaged patients. (2) In what way do linguistic deficits affect the understanding of musical segments? To answer this question, the performance of aphasic patients was compared with that of non-aphasic brain-damaged patients. Moreover, the performance of patients with anterior (primarily Broca's) aphasia whose understanding of language is relatively unimpaired was contrasted with the performance of patients with posterior (Wernicke and anomic) aphasia. Comprehension of language is significantly compromised in the Wernicke group; in particular, the bonds connecting linguistic sound with meaning are often loosened, giving rise to semantic paraphasias and to responses which are often only tangentially related to a topic (Lhermitte, Derouesne and Lecours, 1971; Luria, 1970). Comprehension remains relatively spared in anomics~ though some semantic looseness may be detected. Finally, comprehension of works whose denotative meaning depended upon an appreciation of lyrics was contrasted with comprehension of works whose denotation can be apprehended apart from knowledge of the lyrics. (3) Does a significant relation obtain between sensitivity to musical connotation and sensitivity to musical denotation or can these capacities be behaviorally and neurologically dissociated from one another? A subset of patients received both tests so that a comparison of their performance could be instituted. (4) Do aspects of musical competence break down in parallel fashion in different cultures which nonetheless share the same musical tonal system? To gain information on this question, groups of organically-impaired subjects in Italy, and in the United States, took the same connotation tests and equivalent versions of the denotation test.
Sensitivity to musical denotation and connotation STUDY
1 -
245
SENSITIVITY TO MUSICAL DENOTATION
Purpose This study was designed to provide information on the ability of organic patients to appreciate the denotation of familiar tunes. Included as stimuli were songs where denotative sensitivity depended upon a knowledge of the lyrics, as well as songs whose denotation could be appreciated without such knowledge.
Subjects The American subjects were 61 right-handed patients at the Aphasia Research Center of the Boston Veterans Administration Hospital and the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Center. Organic patients .were classified as left or right-hemispheredamaged on the basis of several indices, including EEG's, surgeon's reports, clinical evidence (hemiplegia, field defects, etc.) and brain scans, the latter being available in nearly all cases. Those with unilateral left hemisphere lesions were further subdivided on the basis of whether their lesions were anterior (injury restricted to the pre-Rolandic area of the hemisphere) or posterior (injury restricted to the post-Rolandic area). It was not possible to,secure localizing information of this specificity on a majority of the right hemisphere patients, who have therefore been grouped together. Altogether, nine subjects were anterior aphasics; 19 were posterior aphasics; 18 were right hemisphere patients; and 15 were normal controls, matched in age and socio-economic background with the brain-damaged subjects. The Italian subjects were 36 right-handed patients at the neurological clinic of the University of Padua. Seven right hemisphere patients, twelve anterior aphasics, and seventeen posterior aphasics were included.
Materials In both the Italian and American versions, the musical stimuli consisted of 26 passages, all segments from familiar tunes, played on a piano for approximately twenty seconds each. As a tape recording of each sel:\ment was played, the subjects were exposed to a manila card on which were displayed the visual stimuli: four colored photographs depicting various situations and scenes. Sixteen of the musical stimuli were termed Lyric Songs: matching to the appropriate photograph depended upon knowledge of the lyrics (e.g. "Row, Row Your Boat" was matched to a picture of a rowboat). The remaining ten items were termed Occasional Songs: subjects could respond correctly here provided they were aware of the occasion on which that selection was usually plaved (e.g. Mendelsohn's "Wedding March" at a wedding; "On Wisconsin" at a football game). It was hypothesized that subjects with left hemisphere lesions would perform at a higher level on those songs for which no knowledge of the lvric was required. To gain a finer understanding of the musical sensitivity of the subjects, the incorrect depictions were each selected according to a specific rationale. One depiction featured a semantically-related scene (e.g. graduation instead of a wedding; sailboat instead of rowboat). A second depiction featured an acoustically-plausible event - an event which, while differing significantly in referential domain, might feature music of that sort solely on the basis of its expressive prooerties (e.g. a picture of children playing, for the frolicsome "Row Row Row"). The third depiction - the random choice - had no apparent association to the target melody.
246
H. Gardner,
f. Silverman,
G. Denes, C. Semenza and A.
K., Rosenstiel
Procedure
So that they might be placed in the proper "set," subjects heard a group of simple items (e.g. "Happy Birthday"). In each case, they were asked to point to one of four illustrations. If they made an error, they were given a chance to correct themselves; if they attempted to point to more than one illustration, or otherwise misconstrued the task, the experimenter modelled a correct performance. Subjects were not allowed to proceed beyond the practice items until they had clearly demonstrated a comprehension of the task. In general, the subjects readily mastered the matching procedure and appeared to enjoy the task. Scoring Subjects received a total score, a sum of the number correct in each of the two types of denotative items. Because there were more lyric than occasional items, each occasional score was multiplied by a factor of 1.6. Error patterns and general strategies were also noted. 15
14
I-
13
. - . Confrols . - . Anterior Apflasics
u
. - . Posterior Aphasics 4.-'" Right Hemisphere Patients
w
0:: 0::
0
u
12
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w
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0
II
0::
w
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:;;:
=>
10
« w :s
9
z z
•
8
01'
Occasional
lyric
!TEM
TYPE
Fig. 1 - Mean number correct of four patient groups on occasional and lyric portions of the musical denotation test. RESULTS
A two-factor (Group X Item Type) repeated measures analysis of variance was computed on the number of correct responses. The analysis revealed
Sensitivity to musical denotation and connotation
247
significant main effects for Group (F = 10.27; d.£. 3, 57; P < .001); Item Type (F = 28.83; d.f. 1, 57; P < .001) and a significant Group X Item Type interaction (F = 5.31; d.£. 3, 57; P < .001). A NewmanJKeuls comparison of means revealed the following differences, each significant at the .05 level. Control patients made significantly more correct responses than all the brain-damaged groups, anterior aphasics surpassed posterior aphasics; no differences emerged between right hemisphere patients and either of the two left hemisphere groups. As for item types, Occasional Songs proved easier than Lyric Songs, for all subject groups. Examination of the interaction revealed that anterior patients selected significantly more correct responses than posterior subjects and right hemisphere subjects on the Occasional Songs, whereas right hemisphere patients selected significantly more correct responses than posterior patients on the Lyric Songs. Moreover, whereas anterior and posterior patients had more correct Occasional than Lyric items, right hemisphere patients and control patients did not differ on the two item types. These interactions can ~ be seen in Figure 1. Posterior and anterior patients were collapsed into a single "left hemisphere group" and a similar analysis was performed. This analysis again revealed significant main effects and interactions (p < .01). Examination of the interaction revealed that right hemisphere patients had significantly more correct Lyric responses than left hemisphere patients; left hemisphere patients had significantly more correct Occasional than Lyric responses. While no significant differences emerged in the error patterns, some suggestive trends were observed. Posterior patients made more acoustic (107) than semantic (76) errors; among anterior patients this difference was less marked (acoustic -46, semantic - 34). Anteriors made almost no random errors (9), while posteriors made numerous random errors (63). Right hemisphere patients performed similar to the anterior aphasics; the number of acoustic errors was slightly greater than semantic (82 vs. 73), with random errors occurring relatively infrequently (36). A test designed along similar lines was administered to a comparable group of organic subjects at the neurological clinic of the University of Padua. Analysis of the data gathered in this study revealed a similar pattern of results. Occasional Songs were slightly easier for the aphasics, Lyric Songs for the right hemisphere patients. Anterior aphasics performed better than posterior aphasics on the test. As for error patterns, acoustic errors were more prevalent than semantic errors, except among the anterior aphasics. Overall, the Italian aphasics performed slightly worse than the Americans, while the Italian right hemisphere patients performed somewhat (but not significantly) better than their American counterparts.
H. Gardner, ]. Silverman, G. Denes, C. Semenza and A. K.. Rosenstiel
248
STUDY
2 -
SENSITIVITY TO MUSICAL CONNOTATION
Purpose This study was designed to investigate the sensitivity of organic patients to the connotation of a musical segment. Subjects were required to match short musical passages to one of two abstract geometric forms.
Subjects 98 subjects participated in the study. Of these, 58 were right- handed subjects tested in the United States, while the remaining 40 subjects were right- handed Italian subjects tested at the Neurological Clinic of the University of Padua. Subjects were classified according to site of lesion by the same procedures employed in Study 1. As subjects in both groups received the identical instructions and test, and trends obtained in the two populations were similar, results of the two samples have been combined in the present report.
Materials The auditory stimuli consisted of thirty pairs of sounds (single notes) or sound patterns. Each of these pairs had to be matched by subjects with pairs of visual (geometric) designs. The procedure by which the auditory and visual stimuli were grouped in the design of the test will be specified below, after the physical characteristics of the auditory and visual stimuli are respectively described. The auditory stimuli were of eight types. Four types were pairs of single notes: The remaining four types of auditory stimuli consisted of pairs of four note sequences. With one exception, there were four examples of each of the eight item types. A description of the thirty auditory stimuli appears in Table 1. TABLE I
Auditory Stimuli in the Music Connotation Test Number of stimuli
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2
Description of stimuli single notes differing in pitch (one octave apart) single notes differing in duration (quarter vs. whole note) single notes differing in in tensity ("piano" vs. "forte") single notes differing in timbre (mandolin vs. recorder) four· note sets differing in speed (4 eighth notes vs. 4 half notes) four·note sets' differing in rhythm (4 quarter·notes arranged in a regular rhythmic grouping vs. 4 notes in an irregular grouping containing two quarter notes, a dotted quarter, ,and eighth note) four·note sets differing in phrasing (4 staccato notes vs. 4 legato notes) four· note sets differing in direction (4 notes ascending by single major scale intervals (i.e. CD.£.F) vs. four notes descending by single major scale intervals (i.e. F·E·D·C).
Sensitivity to musical denotation and connotation
249
As mentioned above, each of the auditory stimuli had to be matched to a pair of visual stimuli. The visual stimuli consisted of 19 different pairs of geometric configurations, all depicted with their accompanying auditory stimuli in Figure 2. Members of each visual pair were designed so as to differ from one PITCH
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Listening to music appears to be a completely natural and direct experience: little training or knowledge seems necessary. For this reason, the contention that music is a symbolic form of communication (Langer, 1942; Meyer, 1956), which must be decoded by the listener, has sometimes been challenged. Yet this claim gains in initial plausibility once the widespread difficulty in assimilating non-Western or contemporary classical music is acknowledged. Moreover, in view of the fact that the music most highly valued in our culture (Beethoven symphonies, Bach cantatas) was initially rejected by critics and still proves incomprehensible to young children raised in this culture, the common-sense notion that music speaks "directly" to people seems improbable. Musical compositions, no less than printed texts or mathematical equations, must be decoded or "read" if their meanings are to be properly apprehended. A first step in examining musical meaning involves isolating the contributing factors. Following the practice of linguistics, one can speak of the denotation of a segment: the extra-musical objects, elements, or situations to which a selection refers. Denotation may be carried primarily or even exclusively by the melody alone: "Hail to the Chief" denotes the President of the United States to individuals who have never heard that piece's name. At other times the lyrics and title of a piece prove crucial for an appreciation of its extramusical meaning: comprehension of the song "Five-foot two, eyes of blue" depends in significant measure on knowledge of the lyrics. A separate, less widely appreciated aspect of musical meaning inheres in the connotation of a segment. Apart from the particular piece in which it happens to be embedded, a musical segment frequently conveys to a variety of listeners within the same culture a certain mood, affect, or physiognomic experience. Moreover, to detect connotation, general familiary with the muI The research reported herein was supported in part by the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke through grant NS-1140B-03 and by Harvard Project Zero. Dr. Denes is now at the University of Padua.
Cortex (1977) 13, 242-256.
Sensitivity to musical denotation and connotation
243
sical system suffices: there is no need to recall specific melodies. Thus a rising pitch sequence conveys a feeling of up-lifting which can be captured in words, dance, or pictures: a staccato passage connotes sharpness, crispness, brevity. While these connotations are often appreciated in only an implicit manner, it has proved possible to devise measures of this facet of meaning (Osgood, 1960; Gardner and Denes, 1973). To be sure, the entire set of meanings apprehended by a skilled listener far exceeds these elements. Such factors as timbre, pitch, phrasing, rhythm, all contribute: moreover, the occasions on which a piece has been encountered and the quality of the performance must also be taken into account. Yet, the capacities to appreciate facets of a segment's denotations and connotations probably define much of the commonality among the musical experiences of diverse individuals. Given that musical segments can communicate meaning, the question of what happens to this ability under conditions of brain-damage is of some interest. That musical understanding is represe{lted cortically is not disputed: yet few areas of cognition remain so obscure to the neuropsychologist. Evidence about the cortical representation of different musical capacities comes principally from two sources. There are, first of all, numerous studies of sound processing in normal individuals: these usually entail a dichotic presentation of various linguistic and non-linguistic sound patterns. By and large, these studies indicate that, in most individuals, the left hemisphere is strongly dominant for the processing of linguistic sounds (particularlv consonants); the right hemisphere plays a somewhat more important role in the processing of musical and other non-linguistic sound patterns (d. StuddertKennedy, 1974; Kimura, 1967, 1973; Gordon, 1970). A second line of evidence comes from the study of the fate of musical capacities in brain-damaged patients. Included here are studies of amusia, in which individuals known to have pre-morbid musical skills are examined in the wake of a stroke or tumor (Wertheim, 1963, 1969); the use of standardized tests (such as the Seashore) with individuals having unilateral brain injuries (Milner, 1962); and, again, studies of dichotic listening (Schulhoff and Goodglass, 1969). In this area, the evidence is somewhat more equivocal. Amusia seems to result more frequently from dominant than from minor hemisphere lesions (Ustwedt, 1937);· yet the use of standardized tests confirms the above generalization that the right hemisphere plays a somewhat more crucial role in the processing of musical sounds. Recently, these trends have been called into sharp question. Bever and Chiarello (1974) present evidence that the organization of musical abilities may differ, depending upon the degree of skill of the musician: musicallysophisticated individuals are likely to perceive musical stimuli in a more analytic manner, and to rely more heavily on the dominant hemisphere. Studies by Swisher and Hirsh (1972), Robinson and Solomon (1974), and
244
H. Gardner, ]. Silverman, G. Denes, C. Semenza and A. K.. Rosenstiel
Halperin, Nachshon and Carmon (1973) point up the crucial role assumed by the left hemisphere in processing any kind of sequential or rhythmic material, including musical series. General reviews of the literature now suggest that, more so than other cognitive capacities, musical ability may be organized differently, or across diverse cortical areas, in different individuals (Gardner, 1975; Wertheim and Botez, 1961; Zangwill, 1975). In the present set of studies an attempt has been made to subdivide the perception of music into component parts, while retaining a level of meaningfulness in the resultant stimuli. A set of simple tasks has been devised in order to reveal the fate in organic patients of sensitivity to denotative and connotative facets of music. In each case the patient hears a brief musical stimulus and is then required to point to that picture in a set which most closely corresponds to the "meaning" (or symbolic significance) of the auditory sequence. Of special interest were the following questions: (1) Are different regions of the brain differentially sensitive to diverse aspects of musical meaning? Information of the question was gained by comparing the performance on both tests of unilaterally left and unilaterally right brain-damaged patients. (2) In what way do linguistic deficits affect the understanding of musical segments? To answer this question, the performance of aphasic patients was compared with that of non-aphasic brain-damaged patients. Moreover, the performance of patients with anterior (primarily Broca's) aphasia whose understanding of language is relatively unimpaired was contrasted with the performance of patients with posterior (Wernicke and anomic) aphasia. Comprehension of language is significantly compromised in the Wernicke group; in particular, the bonds connecting linguistic sound with meaning are often loosened, giving rise to semantic paraphasias and to responses which are often only tangentially related to a topic (Lhermitte, Derouesne and Lecours, 1971; Luria, 1970). Comprehension remains relatively spared in anomics~ though some semantic looseness may be detected. Finally, comprehension of works whose denotative meaning depended upon an appreciation of lyrics was contrasted with comprehension of works whose denotation can be apprehended apart from knowledge of the lyrics. (3) Does a significant relation obtain between sensitivity to musical connotation and sensitivity to musical denotation or can these capacities be behaviorally and neurologically dissociated from one another? A subset of patients received both tests so that a comparison of their performance could be instituted. (4) Do aspects of musical competence break down in parallel fashion in different cultures which nonetheless share the same musical tonal system? To gain information on this question, groups of organically-impaired subjects in Italy, and in the United States, took the same connotation tests and equivalent versions of the denotation test.
Sensitivity to musical denotation and connotation STUDY
1 -
245
SENSITIVITY TO MUSICAL DENOTATION
Purpose This study was designed to provide information on the ability of organic patients to appreciate the denotation of familiar tunes. Included as stimuli were songs where denotative sensitivity depended upon a knowledge of the lyrics, as well as songs whose denotation could be appreciated without such knowledge.
Subjects The American subjects were 61 right-handed patients at the Aphasia Research Center of the Boston Veterans Administration Hospital and the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Center. Organic patients .were classified as left or right-hemispheredamaged on the basis of several indices, including EEG's, surgeon's reports, clinical evidence (hemiplegia, field defects, etc.) and brain scans, the latter being available in nearly all cases. Those with unilateral left hemisphere lesions were further subdivided on the basis of whether their lesions were anterior (injury restricted to the pre-Rolandic area of the hemisphere) or posterior (injury restricted to the post-Rolandic area). It was not possible to,secure localizing information of this specificity on a majority of the right hemisphere patients, who have therefore been grouped together. Altogether, nine subjects were anterior aphasics; 19 were posterior aphasics; 18 were right hemisphere patients; and 15 were normal controls, matched in age and socio-economic background with the brain-damaged subjects. The Italian subjects were 36 right-handed patients at the neurological clinic of the University of Padua. Seven right hemisphere patients, twelve anterior aphasics, and seventeen posterior aphasics were included.
Materials In both the Italian and American versions, the musical stimuli consisted of 26 passages, all segments from familiar tunes, played on a piano for approximately twenty seconds each. As a tape recording of each sel:\ment was played, the subjects were exposed to a manila card on which were displayed the visual stimuli: four colored photographs depicting various situations and scenes. Sixteen of the musical stimuli were termed Lyric Songs: matching to the appropriate photograph depended upon knowledge of the lyrics (e.g. "Row, Row Your Boat" was matched to a picture of a rowboat). The remaining ten items were termed Occasional Songs: subjects could respond correctly here provided they were aware of the occasion on which that selection was usually plaved (e.g. Mendelsohn's "Wedding March" at a wedding; "On Wisconsin" at a football game). It was hypothesized that subjects with left hemisphere lesions would perform at a higher level on those songs for which no knowledge of the lvric was required. To gain a finer understanding of the musical sensitivity of the subjects, the incorrect depictions were each selected according to a specific rationale. One depiction featured a semantically-related scene (e.g. graduation instead of a wedding; sailboat instead of rowboat). A second depiction featured an acoustically-plausible event - an event which, while differing significantly in referential domain, might feature music of that sort solely on the basis of its expressive prooerties (e.g. a picture of children playing, for the frolicsome "Row Row Row"). The third depiction - the random choice - had no apparent association to the target melody.
246
H. Gardner,
f. Silverman,
G. Denes, C. Semenza and A.
K., Rosenstiel
Procedure
So that they might be placed in the proper "set," subjects heard a group of simple items (e.g. "Happy Birthday"). In each case, they were asked to point to one of four illustrations. If they made an error, they were given a chance to correct themselves; if they attempted to point to more than one illustration, or otherwise misconstrued the task, the experimenter modelled a correct performance. Subjects were not allowed to proceed beyond the practice items until they had clearly demonstrated a comprehension of the task. In general, the subjects readily mastered the matching procedure and appeared to enjoy the task. Scoring Subjects received a total score, a sum of the number correct in each of the two types of denotative items. Because there were more lyric than occasional items, each occasional score was multiplied by a factor of 1.6. Error patterns and general strategies were also noted. 15
14
I-
13
. - . Confrols . - . Anterior Apflasics
u
. - . Posterior Aphasics 4.-'" Right Hemisphere Patients
w
0:: 0::
0
u
12
(Jj
:;;:
w
!::
"-
0
II
0::
w
a:l
:;;:
=>
10
« w :s
9
z z
•
8
01'
Occasional
lyric
!TEM
TYPE
Fig. 1 - Mean number correct of four patient groups on occasional and lyric portions of the musical denotation test. RESULTS
A two-factor (Group X Item Type) repeated measures analysis of variance was computed on the number of correct responses. The analysis revealed
Sensitivity to musical denotation and connotation
247
significant main effects for Group (F = 10.27; d.£. 3, 57; P < .001); Item Type (F = 28.83; d.f. 1, 57; P < .001) and a significant Group X Item Type interaction (F = 5.31; d.£. 3, 57; P < .001). A NewmanJKeuls comparison of means revealed the following differences, each significant at the .05 level. Control patients made significantly more correct responses than all the brain-damaged groups, anterior aphasics surpassed posterior aphasics; no differences emerged between right hemisphere patients and either of the two left hemisphere groups. As for item types, Occasional Songs proved easier than Lyric Songs, for all subject groups. Examination of the interaction revealed that anterior patients selected significantly more correct responses than posterior subjects and right hemisphere subjects on the Occasional Songs, whereas right hemisphere patients selected significantly more correct responses than posterior patients on the Lyric Songs. Moreover, whereas anterior and posterior patients had more correct Occasional than Lyric items, right hemisphere patients and control patients did not differ on the two item types. These interactions can ~ be seen in Figure 1. Posterior and anterior patients were collapsed into a single "left hemisphere group" and a similar analysis was performed. This analysis again revealed significant main effects and interactions (p < .01). Examination of the interaction revealed that right hemisphere patients had significantly more correct Lyric responses than left hemisphere patients; left hemisphere patients had significantly more correct Occasional than Lyric responses. While no significant differences emerged in the error patterns, some suggestive trends were observed. Posterior patients made more acoustic (107) than semantic (76) errors; among anterior patients this difference was less marked (acoustic -46, semantic - 34). Anteriors made almost no random errors (9), while posteriors made numerous random errors (63). Right hemisphere patients performed similar to the anterior aphasics; the number of acoustic errors was slightly greater than semantic (82 vs. 73), with random errors occurring relatively infrequently (36). A test designed along similar lines was administered to a comparable group of organic subjects at the neurological clinic of the University of Padua. Analysis of the data gathered in this study revealed a similar pattern of results. Occasional Songs were slightly easier for the aphasics, Lyric Songs for the right hemisphere patients. Anterior aphasics performed better than posterior aphasics on the test. As for error patterns, acoustic errors were more prevalent than semantic errors, except among the anterior aphasics. Overall, the Italian aphasics performed slightly worse than the Americans, while the Italian right hemisphere patients performed somewhat (but not significantly) better than their American counterparts.
H. Gardner, ]. Silverman, G. Denes, C. Semenza and A. K.. Rosenstiel
248
STUDY
2 -
SENSITIVITY TO MUSICAL CONNOTATION
Purpose This study was designed to investigate the sensitivity of organic patients to the connotation of a musical segment. Subjects were required to match short musical passages to one of two abstract geometric forms.
Subjects 98 subjects participated in the study. Of these, 58 were right- handed subjects tested in the United States, while the remaining 40 subjects were right- handed Italian subjects tested at the Neurological Clinic of the University of Padua. Subjects were classified according to site of lesion by the same procedures employed in Study 1. As subjects in both groups received the identical instructions and test, and trends obtained in the two populations were similar, results of the two samples have been combined in the present report.
Materials The auditory stimuli consisted of thirty pairs of sounds (single notes) or sound patterns. Each of these pairs had to be matched by subjects with pairs of visual (geometric) designs. The procedure by which the auditory and visual stimuli were grouped in the design of the test will be specified below, after the physical characteristics of the auditory and visual stimuli are respectively described. The auditory stimuli were of eight types. Four types were pairs of single notes: The remaining four types of auditory stimuli consisted of pairs of four note sequences. With one exception, there were four examples of each of the eight item types. A description of the thirty auditory stimuli appears in Table 1. TABLE I
Auditory Stimuli in the Music Connotation Test Number of stimuli
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2
Description of stimuli single notes differing in pitch (one octave apart) single notes differing in duration (quarter vs. whole note) single notes differing in in tensity ("piano" vs. "forte") single notes differing in timbre (mandolin vs. recorder) four· note sets differing in speed (4 eighth notes vs. 4 half notes) four·note sets' differing in rhythm (4 quarter·notes arranged in a regular rhythmic grouping vs. 4 notes in an irregular grouping containing two quarter notes, a dotted quarter, ,and eighth note) four·note sets differing in phrasing (4 staccato notes vs. 4 legato notes) four· note sets differing in direction (4 notes ascending by single major scale intervals (i.e. CD.£.F) vs. four notes descending by single major scale intervals (i.e. F·E·D·C).
Sensitivity to musical denotation and connotation
249
As mentioned above, each of the auditory stimuli had to be matched to a pair of visual stimuli. The visual stimuli consisted of 19 different pairs of geometric configurations, all depicted with their accompanying auditory stimuli in Figure 2. Members of each visual pair were designed so as to differ from one PITCH
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