Isabel Adames presents poster on her senior project

Isabel Adames presented her poster "Sensitivity to natural pairing of musical pitch and timbre" at the 2023 Undergraduate Arts and Research Showcase. Perception of musical pitch and timbre interfere with each other. Instruments with brighter timbres (more higher frequencies) tend to be perceived as playing higher pitches; instruments with darker timbres (less high-frequency energy) tend to be perceived as playing lower pitches. Here, listeners did a simple high/low pitch ranking judgment when hearing instruments with either brighter (oboe, trumpet) or darker timbres (trombone, tuba). In the first block, pitch and timbre covaried (brighter timbres playing higher pitches, vice versa for darker timbres playing lower pitches) and performance was excellent. In the second block, these pairings were reversed; responses slowed modestly but because far less accurate than before. In block three, pairings returned to normal and response times and accuracy rebounded (and were faster than ever). Interestingly, accuracy scores in all three blocks were positively correlated with musical training from this largely non-musician participant sample. Multiple follow-up experiments are already designed and/or underway! This successfully completes her Culminating Undergraduate Experience in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Congratulations Isabel!