Perceptual integrality of major chord components

Rhythm contour drives musical memory

Listeners' use of contour information as a basis for memory of rhythmic patterns was explored in two experiments. Both studies employed a short-term memory paradigm in which listeners heard a standard rhythm, followed by a comparison rhythm, and judged whether the comparison was the same as the standard. Comparison rhythms included exact repetitions of the standard, same contour rhythms in which the relative interval durations of successive notes (but not the absolute durations of the notes themselves) were the same as the standard, and different contour rhythms in which the relative duration intervals of successive notes differed from the standard. Experiment 1 employed metric rhythms, whereas Experiment 2 employed ametric rhythms. D-prime analyses revealed that, in both experiments, listeners showed better discrimination for different contour rhythms relative to same contour rhythms. Paralleling classic work on melodic contour, these findings indicate that the concept of contour is both relevant to one's characterization of the rhythm of musical patterns and influences short-term memory for such patterns.

Culture-general and culture-specific factors in the discrimination of melodies

We examined effects of a culture-general factor, pattern redundancy (number of repeated tones), on the discrimination of 5-tone melodies that differed in their adherence to Western tonal conventions. Experiment 1 evaluated the ability of 9-month-old infants to differentiate "standard" melodies from subtly altered "comparison" melodies. Greater redundancy of the standard melodies was associated with enhanced infant performance, but musical conventionality had no effect. Experiment 2 evaluated comparable abilities in 5-year-old children and musically untrained adults. Children's performance was enhanced by the redundancy of standard melodies, but the effect was greater in conventional than in unconventional contexts. The redundancy of standard melodies facilitated adults' performance in conventional but not in unconventional contexts. Thus, increasing musical exposure seems to attenuate the effects of culture-general factors such as pattern redundancy while amplifying the influence of culture-specific factors.