Music cognition: Learning, perception, expectations

Abstract

Research in music cognition domain has shown that non musician listeners have implicit knowledge about the Western tonal musical system. This knowledge, acquired by mere exposure to music in everyday life, influences perception of musical structures and allows developing expectations for future incoming events. Musical expectations play a role for musical expressivity and influence event processing: Expected events are processed faster and more accurately than less-expected events and this influence extends to the processing of simultaneously presented visual information. Studying implicit learning of auditory material in the laboratory allows us to further understand this cognitive capacity (i.e., at the origin of tonal acculturation) and its potential application to the learning of new musical systems and new musical expectations. In addition to behavioral studies on cognitive processes in and around music perception, computational models allow simulating learning, representation and perception of music for non musician listeners. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.