This study investigated the strength of sensory and cognitive components involved in musical priming. In Experiment 1, the harmonic function of the target chord and the number of pitch classes shared by the prime sequence and the target chord were manipulated. In Experiment 2, the temporal course of sensory and cognitive priming was investigated. For both musician and nonmusician listeners, cognitive priming systematically overruled sensory priming even at fast and very fast tempi (300 ms and 150 ms per chord). Cognitive priming continued to challenge sensory priming processes at extremely fast tempo (75 ms per chord) but only for participants who began the experimental session with slower tempi. This outcome suggests that the cognitive component is a fast-acting component that competes with sensory priming.A musical context generates expectancies about upcoming musical events in listeners. Several features govern expectancy formation in Western music, including melodic interval size and melodic contour
This study further explores the effect of global context on chord processing reported by E. Bigand and M. Pineau (1997). Expectations of a target chord were varied by manipulating the preliminary harmonic context while holding constant the chord(s) prior to the target. In Experiment 1, previously observed priming effects were replicated with an on-line paradigm. Experiment 2 was an attempt to identify the point in chord sequences that is responsible for the occurrence of the priming effect. In Experiment 3, Bigand and Pineau's findings were extended to wider harmonic contexts (i.e., defined at three hierarchical levels), and new evidence was provided that chord processing also depends on the temporal organization of the musical sequence. Neural net simulations globally support J. J. Bharucha's (1987Bharucha's ( ,1994 view that priming effects result from activations spreading via a schematic knowledge of Western harmony.
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