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07-03-2022 | Original Article

Embodiment and repeated exposure do not suffice for abstract concepts acquisition: evidence from tonal music cognition

Auteurs: Gabriel F. López, J. Fernando Anta

Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research | Uitgave 1/2023

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Abstract

Research on abstract concepts (AC) suggests that while some AC are enacted indirectly and occasionally, others are largely grounded in our sensory–motor and affective experience, and the opportunities to enact them are countless, which would allow us to acquire them without supervision. From this, the following question arises: do embodiment and repeated exposure suffice to dispense with supervision in abstract concepts acquisition (ACA)? In the present study, this question was addressed in the context of tonal music cognition, which demands a high level of abstraction, and via musical materials that participants had frequently heard and sung. Specifically, highly trained, moderately trained, and untrained participants (24 each) were given 12 well-known melodic fragments ending on tones instantiating 6 different scale degrees (2 times each) and asked to group (round 1) or pair (round 2) those fragments whose last tone conveyed the same (or a similar enough) level of stability or rest. If embodiment and repeated exposure suffice for ACA, then one would expect a scale degree-based grouping strategy regardless of participants’ training level. Results showed that only highly trained participants systematically grouped stimuli ending on the same scale degree, particularly in round 2; moderately trained participants’ performance was mixed, and tonality’s influence on untrained participants was negligible. Further, moderately trained and untrained participants performed inconsistently, discarding in round 2 almost all of the pairs formed in round 1. These findings are integrated with previous findings on the effect of language, affect, and category type on conceptualization to account for why and when ACA requires supervision.
Voetnoten
1
A complete description of the Western tonal system is beyond the scope of this article. However, it is worth mentioning that it is based on the idea that pitches or ‘tones’ (e.g., those produced by each key on a piano, and referred to with letters and numbers; e.g., C4) are grouped into a set of 12 pitch classes (C, C♯/Db, D, D♯/Eb, E, F, F♯/Gb, G, G♯/Ab, A, A♯/Bb, and B), which in turn are organized around subsets of 7 pitch classes, called ‘diatonic scales’ (e.g., the C major scale, C, D, E, F, G, A, and B), in which one pitch class, called the ‘tonic’ or ‘1st scale degree’, is taken as reference (e.g., the class C, in the C major scale). In a given piece of music, any subset of tones may be used, but references must be made to a scale, and most importantly to its tonic.
 
2
In single sessions (lasting, on average, 90 min), all of the participants worked (in a balanced design) not only with the 12 known fragments described above, but also with 12 novel, ad-hoc created melodies. Novel melodies (composed in accordance with basic principles of melodic structuring, e.g., to keep tones proximate in pitch) were used as control stimuli; they were more homogeneous than know fragments: besides instantiating only major keys, ending only on steps, etc., they had the same scale degree distribution (up to the occurrence of the last/target tone); the same steady rhythm (in which each tone lasted 0.67 s); virtually the same (10 or 11 semitones) range; and always ended on a tone (in a register from D3 to Eb4) closer (in pitch) to the center of their range than to the extremes. The results found with novel stimuli, however, largely mirrored those found with known stimuli. Hence, and given that we were interested in examining the scope of embodiment and exposure in tonal CA, only those aspects of the study related to know stimuli are report here.
 
3
With 11 min for working, participants had time enough as to hear each stimulus at least 4 times; we assumed that this would represent a balance between the opportunities needed to grasp their tonal experience at the end of the fragments and the amount of work they were required to do. (Recall—see footnote 2—that all of the participants worked not only with known but also with novel stimuli—that could also be heard at least 4 times each per round). In addition, a timer showing a countdown—in minutes and seconds—was always provided within each round, to help the participants to organize their work. It is worth mentioning that all of the participants finished the tasks within the allocated time, and that none of them reported having had any trouble for completing the study.
 
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Metagegevens
Titel
Embodiment and repeated exposure do not suffice for abstract concepts acquisition: evidence from tonal music cognition
Auteurs
Gabriel F. López
J. Fernando Anta
Publicatiedatum
07-03-2022
Uitgeverij
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Gepubliceerd in
Psychological Research / Uitgave 1/2023
Print ISSN: 0340-0727
Elektronisch ISSN: 1430-2772
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-022-01662-2