Re: Reality check

[Stewart Hulse <hulse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'll add a peck.

Porter and Neuringer (Journal of Experimental Psychology, Animal Behavior
Processes, 1984) showed that pigeons could readily discriminate excerpts
from Bach's music as compared with excerpts from Stravinsky's music.  The
discrimination also generalized immediately to other classical and modern
composers such as Scarlatti and Buxtehude as well as Carter and Piston.
These data say nothing about which musical period was preferred, but the
question could be asked and answered experimentally.  For a fuller
discussion of some other issues in the comparative psychology of music, see
Hulse and Page, Music Perception, 1988.

Cheers,

Stewart Hulse

-----Original Message-----
From: AUDITORY Research in Auditory Perception
[mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ferguson, Sarah Hargus
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 3:37 PM
To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Reality check

Okay, I'll bite (or scratch?) -

My French horn teacher in high school had several large dogs. One of
them, a St. Bernard, liked to sit with his head under her chair as she
played. He would lie there blissfully as she played scales or etudes -
but as soon as she started working on arpeggios he would start to whine.
If she didn't stop, he'd heave a big sigh, haul himself out from under
the chair, lope to the studio door, and start scratching to get out.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sarah Hargus Ferguson, Ph.D., CCC-A
Assistant Professor
Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders
University of Kansas
Dole Center
1000 Sunnyside Ave., Room 3001
Lawrence, KS  66045
office: (785)864-1116
Speech Acoustics and Perception Lab: (785)864-0610
http://www.lsi.ku.edu/ipcd/FAC/Bios/FergusonBio.html


> -----Original Message-----
> From: AUDITORY Research in Auditory Perception
> [mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Pierre Divenyi
> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 2:11 PM
> To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Reality check
>
> Music appreciation by r/cats?
>
> OK -- my hat in the ring. When he was of an age between kitten and
> adolescent, one of my cats (Boulez, a Maine coon of 17 lbs) used to
take
> naps between the strings and the lid of my piano (which did impede my
> playing) and got used to sit on the piano when I was playing. However,
he
> failed to tell me 'til this day which composer he liked most, so I am
> still
> uncertain as to whether it was the sounds or the vibration that drove
him
> to spending time around the piano. I guess I never really took his
> behavior
> seriously enough to run a single-cat experiment and I am ashamed to
admit
> that I have never lost sleep over it.
>
> Pierre