Abstract
Bottom-up principles of melodic implication (Narmour, 1990) were evaluated in a melody-completion task. One hundred subjects (50 low training; 50 high training in music) were presented each of eight melodic intervals. For each interval, the subjects were asked to compose a short melody on a piano keyboard, treating the interval provided as the first two notes of the melody. For each melody, the first response—the note immediately following the initial interval—was analyzed. Multinomial log linear analyses were conducted to assess the extent to which responses could be predicted by Narmour’s (1990, 1992) bottom-up principles. Support was found for all of Narmour’s principles, and two additional predictors based on implied tonal structure. Responses of low- and high-training groups were similar.
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This research was funded by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada awarded to W.F.T. and L.L.C.
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Thompson, W.F., Cuddy, L.L. & Plaus, C. Expectancies generated by melodic intervals: Evaluation of principles of melodic implication in a melody-completion task. Perception & Psychophysics 59, 1069–1076 (1997). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03205521
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03205521