In three experiments, musically trained and untrained adults listened to three repetitions of a 5-note melodic sequence followed by a final melody with either the same tune as those preceding it or differing in one position by one semitone. In Experiment 1, ability to recognize the final sequence was examined as a function of redundancy at the levels of musical structure in a sequence, contour complexity of transpositions in a trial, and trial context in a session. Within a sequence, tones were related as the major or augmented triad; within a trial, the four sequences began on successively higher notes (simple macrocontour) or on randomly selected notes (complex macrocontour); and within a session, trials were either blocked (all major or all augmented) or mixed (major and augmented randomly selected). Performance was superior for major melodies, for systematic transpositions within a trial (simple macrocontours), for blocked trials, and for musically trained listeners. In Experiment 2, we examined further the effect of macrocontour. Performance on simple macrocontours exceeded that on complex, and excluded the possibility that repetition of the 20-note sequences provided the entire benefit of systematic transposition in Experiment 1. The effect of musical structure (major/augmented) was also replicated. In Experiment 3, listeners provided structure ratings of ascending 20-note sequences from Experiment 2. Ratings on same trials were higher than those on corresponding different trials, in contrast to performance scores for augmented same and different trials in previous experiments. The concept of functional uncertainty was proposed to account for recognition difficulties on augmented same trials. The significant effects of redundancy on all the levels examined confirm the utility of the information-processing framework for the study of melodic sequence perception.In the present investigation, we examine the effect of uncertainty on melodic pattern processing. In particular, we aim to show that uncertainty at various levels of stimulus structure affects melodic processing. Interest in uncertainty originated in applications of information theory to perception and meaning (Gamer, 1962(Gamer, , 1974Haber, 1969;Underwood, 1979). According to this conceptualization, limited capacity or processing resources can be overcome by effective coding at various stages from sensation to perception and representation.The accuracy of encoding is thought to be affected by the physical properties of the stimulus and the experimental context. Because information requiring a simple code demands fewer processing resources than does information requiring a more complex code, complexity of the code predicts the accuracy of representation. According to Simon (1972), the complexity of a pattern can be defined by the number of symbols required to represent it. For example, a pattern with three identical elements (e.g.,