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In melodic perception research, presentation tempo of melodies under consideration has been widely varied. A review of recent melodic perception and cognition studies showed that tempi used ranged from "uniformly slow" and J = 72 MM to J = 200 MM. In addition, most studies stated no rationale for the presentation tempo chosen. The purpose of this study was to determine whether presentation tempo affects respondents' performance on melodic memory tasks. Subjects were 301 college undergraduate nonmusic majors enrolled in introductory music appreciation classes from Spring, 1987 through Spring, 1989. Paired, seven-note melodies were presented at tempi in 20 MM increments ranging from 40 to 480 MM. Subjects' task was to determine whether the melodies were the same or different. Sixteen melodies of varying tonal strength were used, and each subject heard them at each of three tempi, constituting a 48-item set. Presentation of melodies and recording of responses was done via microcomputer, allowing for a unique randomization of items for each subject. Results indicated a "maximum performance plateau" between 100 and 240 MM, within which tempo variation seems not to affect melodic memory performance. Below 100 MM performance fell off sharply. From 260 to 360 MM performance was significantly lower than in the 100 to 240 MM range, and above 360 MM fell off sharply, approaching chance level at 480 MM. These results have important implications for future melodic perception and cognition research, as well as possible implications for practical music training tasks such as melodic dictation.

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