Results

For percentages of correct responses (Table 1), the interaction between Tonal Relatedness and Pitch Deviation was significant (F(1,27) = 4.60; MSE = 91; p < .05): Correct responses tended to be more numerous for related in-tune targets (p = .09), but not for related out-of-tune targets (p = .11). For correct response times (Figure 3), the interaction between Tonal Relatedness and Pitch Deviation was also significant (F(1,27) = 5.98; MSE = 2756; p < .05): Response times were faster for related than for less-related in-tune targets (F(1,27) = 4.54; p < .05), but there was no significant difference for out-of-tune targets (p = .17). The main effect of Pitch Deviation was significant (F(1,27) = 9.87; MSE = 4649; p < .01): Participants responded faster for out-of-tune than for in-tune targets. An additional ANOVA with melodies as random variable confirmed the interaction between Tonal Relatedness and Pitch Deviation (F 2 (1,11) = 7.11; MSE = 1633; p < .05). An ANOVA on correct response times including Musical Expertise revealed a marginal interaction between Musical Expertise, Tonal Relatedness and Pitch Deviation (p = .07): The interactive pattern between Tonal Relatedness and Pitch Deviation was observed only for the less-moderately experienced participants (F(1,15) = 8.93; MSE = 2860; p < .01), whereas the more experienced listeners tended to respond faster for related targets for both target types (p = .09). The main effect of Musical Expertise was also significant ( F(1,26) = 4.71; MSE = 47339; p < .05): The moderately experienced participants responded faster than the less-experienced ones.

Figure 3. Correct response times in Experiment 2, presented as a function of Tonal Relatedness and Pitch Deviation. Related/Less Related conditions refer to mediant/leading tone targets. The Out-of-tune condition refers to target tones whose pitch was augmented by 35 cents. Error bars indicate between-participants standard errors.
Figure 3. Correct response times in Experiment 2, presented as a function of Tonal Relatedness and Pitch Deviation. Related/Less Related conditions refer to mediant/leading tone targets. The Out-of-tune condition refers to target tones whose pitch was augmented by 35 cents. Error bars indicate between-participants standard errors.