Absolute Judgments of Musical Tonality

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Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to determine the accuracy with which college musicians could make absolute judgments of equally-tempered tonalities. In the main experiment, 27 subjects made judgments of the tonality (key-name and mode) of 3 series of tape-recorded piano tones presented over a loudspeaker at a sound pressure level of approximately 80 db re 0.0002 dyne/cm2. The stimuli consisted of 3 randomly-ordered presentations of each of 12 major and 12 minor keys within each of 3 test series. Series I consisted of ascending diatonic scales; Series n, randomized diatonic "scales;" and Series III, sequences of four chords. For each tonality within each series, the stimulus duration was approximately 4 seconds, with 6 seconds between stimuli. All 216 judgments for each subjects (3 series, 72 judgments per series) were made in a single hour. Results of the main experiment showed that college musicians were able to identify certain keys of equal temperament on the basis of absolute judgments. Also, there were real differences in the accuracy with which different musical patterns were judged, as well as real differences among subjects in their ability to make such judgments. In general, the identification of major keys was better than that of minor keys. The order, from highest to lowest, in which stimulus patterns were identified was Series I, Series HI, and Series II. The findings of the present study, however, were interpreted as failing to support the classical theory that musical tonalities possess inherent qualities which permit the listener to distinguish among them.

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