This paper investigates the contextual recognition of neutral thirds in music by integrating real-world musical context into the study of categorical perception. Traditionally, categorical perception has been studied using isolated auditory stimuli in controlled laboratory settings. However, music is typically experienced within a circumstantial framework, significantly influencing its reception. Our study involved musicians from various specializations who listened to precomposed musical fragments, each concluding with a 350-cent interval preceded by different harmonic contexts. The fragments included a monophonic synthesizer and orchestral mockups, with contexts such as major chords, minor chords, a single pitch, neutral thirds, and natural fifths. The results indicate that musical context remarkably affects the recognition of pseudotonal chords. Participants' accuracy in judging interval size varied based on the preceding harmonic context. A statistical analysis was conducted to determine if there were significant differences in the neutral third perception across the different harmonic contexts. The test led to the rejection of the null hypothesis: the findings underscore the need to consider real-world listening experiences in research on auditory processing and cognition.
