Humans Rapidly Learn Grammatical Structure in a New Musical Scale

Abstract

Knowledge of musical rules and structures has been reliably demonstrated in humans of different ages, cultures, and levels of music training, and has been linked to our musical preferences. However, how humans acquire knowledge of and develop preferences for music remains unknown. The present study shows that humans rapidly develop knowledge and preferences when given limited exposure to a new musical system. Using a non-traditional, unfamiliar musical scale (Bohlen-Pierce scale), we created finite-state musical grammars from which we composed sets of melodies. After 25-30 min of passive exposure to the melodies, participants showed extensive learning as characterized by recognition, generalization, and sensitivity to the event frequencies in their given grammar, as well as increased preference for repeated melodies in the new musical system. Results provide evidence that a domain-general statistical learning mechanism may account for much of the human appreciation for music.

The Integration of Stimulus Dimensions in the Perception of Music

“…However, careful examination of the existing research shows that all encultured listeners perceive music remarkably similarly (Bigand & Poulin-Charronnat, 2006 ). With a specific view towards abstract organizational structures, both musically trained and untrained listeners show the same patterns of perception of tonality (Hébert, Peretz, & Gagnon, 1995;Koelsch, Gunter, Friederici, & Schröger, 2000;Loui, Wessel, & Kam, 2010;Tillmann & PoulinCharronnat, 2010;Trainor & Trehub, 1994;van Egmond & Boswijk, 2007) and meter (Geiser, Ziegler, Jancke, & Meyer, 2009;Hannon et al, 2004). The present studies extend these general findings by revealing that musical training is not associated with any qualitative differences in pitch-time integration.…”

Generality and specificity in the effects of musical expertise on perception and cognition

“…Similarly, relative to non-musicians, musicians have larger P2 amplitudes to novel sung melodies they have not previously heard versus familiar sung melodies heard during an exposure phase (Francois and Schön, 2011). In contrast, Rohrmeier et al (2011) found no difference between musicians and non-musicians on a sequence familiarity judgement task, after passive exposure to tone sequences built from a finite state grammar (see also Loui et al, 2010).…”

“…Shook et al, 2013; see also Reber, 1993, for discussion). As suggested by Loui et al (2010) detailed (and likely explicit -see Hannon & Trainor, 2007) knowledge of Western tonal relations may therefore have interfered with learning or using the familiarized statistical regularities within our tone sequences (Loui et al, 2010;McMullen Jonaitis & Saffran, 2009). This suggests that learning of novel, regular auditory structures may be limited by prior expert knowledge or expectations.…”

“…As mentioned above, one of the fundamental challenges of musical performance is perceiving and reproducing auditory sequences that repeat over time (Koelsch et al, 2002;van Zuijen et al, 2004; see also Rohrmeier et al, 2011;Loui, Wessel & Kam, 2010;Dick et al, 2011;Patel, 2003, for discussion). These sequences can vary greatly in length, speed, and the basic unit of analysis (e.g., a single motif versus a phrase built from motifs).…”

Dissociating Prediction Failure: Considerations from Music Perception

“…Accounting for tonal influences would offer a particularly interesting avenue for future work in this area. Indeed, use of equidistant pitches from an unfamiliar scale, such as the Bohlen-Pierce Scale (Loui et al, 2010), could potentially eliminate such influences from long-term exposure.…”