A temporally based theory of attending is proposed that assumes that the structure of world events affords different attending modes. Future-oriented attending supports anticipatory behaviors and occurs with highly coherent temporal events. Time judgments, given this attending mode, axe influenced by the way an event's ending confirms or violates temporal expectancies. Analytic attending supports other activities (e.g., grouping, counting), and if it occurs with events of low temporal coherence, then time judgments depend on the attending levels involved. A weighted contrast model describes over-and underestimations of event durations. The model applies to comparative duration judgments of equal and unequal time intervals; its rationale extends to temporal productions/extrapolations. Two experiments compare predictions of the contrast model with those derived from other traditional approaches.One characteristic of modern society is a preoccupation with fixed time schedules and standardized timekeepers. We maintain appointments at hourly intervals, rush to meet the 5:00 p.m. bus, and dine at predetermined hours. Yet our natural ability to judge time remains poorly understood. How often do we estimate the time elapsed since last glancing at a clock and discover with surprise that we were fairly accurate? Surprise is understandable because at least as often we lose track of time and err. The validity of these impressions is confirmed by laboratory research showing that duration judgments depend not only on actual physical duration but also on a variety of nontemporal factors. These include the spatial layout and complexity of an event as well as the attentional set, skill, affect, and constitutional state of the judge (Allan, 1979;Fraisse, 1984; Kristofferson, 1984).Researchers have addressed many of these issues that include both psychophysical problems (e.g., Weber's Law for time discrimination) and organismic variables (e.g., age, drugs, and arousal effects). Of recent interest is the influence of nontemporal information on time judgments, due largely to a fascination with such problems as the filled interval effect. This phenomenon reveals that two equivalent time intervals may not be judged as such because of the nontemporal information that fills them. Although the most popular models of judged duration attempt to explain this effect (e.g., Block, 1978;Ornstein, 1969), the effect itself raises problems for a general theory of time estimation (Allan, 1979).In this article we focus on some problems raised by the filled This research was supported by Grant BNS-8204811 from the National Science Foundation and by a fellowship from the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study awarded to the senior author (I 986-1987).The authors thank Chris Antons, David Buffer, Walter Johnson, Gary Kidd, Kerri Marsh, Elizabeth Maxshburn, John Michon, Mitch Pratt, Ken Pugh, Jackie Ralston, and Wither wan Vreden. Special thanks axe due to Steve Handel and two anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments on an earlier version of...

Melodic and rhythmic context were systematically varied in a pattern recognition task involving pairs (standard-eomparison) of nine-tone auditory sequences. The experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that rhythmic context can direct attention toward or away from tones which instantiate higher order melodic rules. Three levels of melodic structure (one,two, no higher order rules) were crossed with four levels of rhythm [isochronous, dactyl (A U U), anapest (U U A), irregular]. Rhythms were designed to shift accent locations on three centrally embedded tones. Listeners were more accurate in detecting violations of higher order melodic rules when the rhythmic context induced accents on tones which instantiated these rules. Effects are discussed in terms of attentional rhythmicity.211

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The use of background music within films provides a naturalistic setting in which to investigate certain issues of schematic processing. Here, the relative placement of music was manipulated such that music either accompanied a scene's outcome, and thereby accentuated its affective meaning, or foreshadowed the same scene, and thereby created expectancies about the future course of events. In addition, background music was either congruent or incongruent with the affect of an episode's outcome. When subjects were later asked to recall the series of filmed episodes, results showed that expectancy violations arising from mood-incongruent relations led to better memory in the foreshadowing condition, while mood-congruent relations led to better performance in the accompanying condition. Results from a recognition task further revealed that scenes unavailable for recall could be recognized when cued by background music. These overall findings are discussed in terms of selective-attending processes that are differentially directed as a function of background music.Music can perform several different functions in a culture, but perhaps the most salient of these is its ability to instill different moods and emotions within listeners. Depending on the style of performance (Clynes, 1983; Gabrielsson, 1985 Gabrielsson, , 1989Shaffer, 1989)and certain structural characteristics of the tune itself (Hevner, 1936;Levi, 1982;Rigg, 1964;Scherer, 1979), some melodies can express positive feelings oflightheartedness, gaity, or relaxation, whereas others can convey more negative feelings of anger, apprehension, or melancholy. Filmmakers have long acknowledged this function of music and have developed various techniques in which music is used to exert certain effects upon a viewing audience. In some cases, music is intended to create expectancies about the activities and outcomes of future scenes; in other instances, music is used to enhance (or reduce) the emotional impact of depicted activities. Although some investigators have examined effects of background music on emotional reactions, the impact of such music on cognitive processing activities remains an unexplored area. The present research provides a preliminary investigation of this issue by considering the potential influence of background music on the remembering offtlmed events. This, in tum, provides a naturalistic setting in which to investigate certain issues within the cognitive literature. One issue concerns effects of expectancy confirmation/violation upon This research was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from Haverford College. The authors thank Brian Knatz for assistance with the manuscript's preparation and W. Jay Dowling, John Sloboda, Portia Maultsby, Margaret Intons-Peterson, and one anonymous reviewer for critical comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Marilyn Boltz, Department of Psychology, Haverford College, Haverford, PA 19041 (e-mail: M-BOLTZ@HVRFORD.BITNET).the recall of filmed events and...

Previous research has demonstrated that the accompanying music of a film can influence both the affective impact of a scene as well as its subsequent remembering. The intent here was to investigate whether the affect of music can also contribute to a story's comprehension by guiding the course of selective attending and providing a more elaborative encoding of characters' actions, motivations, and inherent temperament. These ideas were examined by presenting participants with three ambiguous film clips accompanied by positive, negative, and no music. Immediately after viewing each clip, some participants were asked to extrapolate the film's ending, evaluate the personality and motivations of the main character(s), and complete a series of bipolar adjective ratings about the film's actions. In addition, other participants returned a week later for a surprise recognition test that assessed their memory for certain objects within each film. Results revealed that relative to the control group of no music, positive and negative music significantly biased viewers' interpretation and subsequent remembering of a film in a mood-congruent fashion. These findings are discussed in terms of the schematic influences of music upon the cognitive processing of visual scenes.