Melody recognition: The experimental application of musical rules.

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Abstract
Human recognition of a transposed sequence of 3 tones was tested under 4 conditions of tone context. The melodic sequence was presented either without context or embedded in 1 of 3 types of context that varied according to the number of musical rules applied in their derivation. The recognition test (2 alternative forced choice) involved detection of a shift of 1 semit of 1 tone of the sequence, the shift being to a tone either within or without the musical key of the sequence. The test sequences were transposed either to the tritone or to the dominant of the tonic of the original sequence. Results, replicated for both piano and sine-tone stimuli, indicated significant effects of contextual conditions, key of error and key of transposition. Ease of recognition in transposition is related to the identification and application of rules defining structures among tones and among tone sets, and to the use of rules for detecting structural violations.

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