Expectancy in melody: Tests of children and adults. Journal Articles

abstract

• Melodic expectancies among children and adults were examined. In Experiment 1, adults, 11-year-olds, and 8-year-olds rated how well individual test tones continued fragments of melodies. In Experiment 2, 11-, 8-, and 5-year-olds sang continuations to 2-tone stimuli. Response patterns were analyzed using 2 models of melodic expectancy. Despite having fewer predictor variables, the 2-factor model (E. G. Schellenberg, 1997) equaled or surpassed the implication-realization model (E. Narmour, 1990) in predictive accuracy. Listeners of all ages expected the next tone in a melody to be proximate in pitch to the tone heard most recently. Older listeners also expected reversals of pitch direction, specifically for tones that changed direction after a disruption of proximity and for tones that formed symmetric patterns.

authors

• Schellenberg, E Glenn
• Adachi, Mayumi
• Purdy, Kelly T
• McKinnon, Margaret

publication date

• December 2002

has subject area

• 1701 Psychology (FoR)
• 1702 Cognitive Sciences (FoR)
• Adolescent (MeSH)
• Adult (MeSH)
• Age Factors (MeSH)
• Child (MeSH)
• Child, Preschool (MeSH)
• Experimental Psychology (Science Metrix)
• Female (MeSH)
• Humans (MeSH)
• Male (MeSH)
• Mental Recall (MeSH)
• Music (MeSH)
• Perceptual Closure (MeSH)
• Pitch Perception (MeSH)
• Psychoacoustics (MeSH)
• Set, Psychology (MeSH)
• Sound Spectrography (MeSH)

published in

• Journal of experimental psychology. General  Journal

keywords

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Age Factors
• Child
• Child, Preschool
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Mental Recall
• Music
• Perceptual Closure
• Pitch Perception
• Psychoacoustics
• Set, Psychology
• Sound Spectrography

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1037/0096-3445.131.4.511

PubMed ID

• 12500861

start page

• 511

end page

• 537

volume

• 131

issue

• 4