Experimental Researches On The Priming Effect In The Perception Of Melody

The priming research originated from the study of implicit memory in cognitive psychology.It indicates that the stimulation which was represented before facilitates the process of the same or the similar stimulation later. The concrete characters of it are that the reaction speed has been accelerated and the accuracy has been improved and so on.The research of music priming is one of the most important aspects of studying the music perception expectancy. In terms of the cognitive basis of studying music perception expectancy, priming is a good point of penetration. According to the various classification of priming, music can be classified into two types:music relatedness priming and music repetition priming. Relatedness priming means that the target stimulation is related to the previous stimulation to some extent. Repetition priming means that the priming emerges when the target stimulation appears before or the target stimulation appears repeatedly in other words. In the view of music priming, the relatedness of music elements comes from the harmonic function relationship (tonal stability) within themselves. The tonal stability of tonic ranks the highest. Next comes to the dominant and median. A great number of studies justify that in tonal music, the process of tonic as target sound has been facilitated significantly. However, there are some disputes existing in the music priming researches which can be concluded in following five points:Firstly, whether the music priming only exists in performances of priming in tonic as target stimulation; Secondly, whether different stimulation materials can result in priming of several dimensions; Thirdly, whether the priming that is less related will be influence by the experiences of tested music; Fourthly, whether the timbre of target stimulation and stimulation materials will influence the music priming. Fifthly, whether the relatedness of western tonic sounds will have an effect on those of china.Out of the integrated consideration of above questions, this essay designs two experiments. Experiment 1 uses timbre recognition tasks while experiment 2 uses pitch recognition tasks.Experiment 1 aims at, through timbre recognition tasks, justifying that priming effect is not only existing in the priming performances where tonic is the target stimulus. The experiment utilizes melody as stimulus material to prove that related priming exists in the processing of single channel melody and uses the variation of tone to explore whether the tones of target stimulus and stimulus material have effect on music priming. The experiment adopts 3(timbre:clarinet, oboe, English horn) × 2 2(musicians/non-musicians. Musicians are students of musical instruments major in the conservatory of music, who have received long-term and systematic music training. Non-musicians are students who have not received formal music training)×2(the harmony functional relations of target sound and its melody are divided into two levels, one is about mediant where harmony relations are more close and the other is about leading tones where harmony relations are less close) combined experiment design. The process of this experiment is to play some melodies that last about 8 seconds. Through the process, the tested persons need to pay attention to the last tone of every melody and judge whether its timbre is the same as the melody timbre. Meanwhile, he ought to make correct and rapid responses to it.In contrast to the timbre recognition tasks of experiment 1, the pitch recognition task of experiment 2 is more difficult. In the meanwhile, due to the fact that the occurrence time and lasting time of target sound are changed in the experiment 2, it is more beneficial for us to observe the effect of priming to the tested process carefully. Experiment 2 adopts 2(pitch:in tune/ out of tune) × 2(the harmony functional relations of target sound and its melody are divided into two levels, one is about mediant where harmony relations are more close and the other is about leading tones where harmony relations are less close) × 2(musicians/non-musicians. Musicians are students of musical instruments major in the conservatory of music, who have received long-term and systematic music training. Non-musicians are students who have not received formal music training) combined experiment design. The process of this experiment is to play some melodies that last about 8 seconds. Through the process, the tested persons need to pay attention to the last tone of every melody and judge whether the timbre is out of tune. Meanwhile, he ought to make correct and rapid responses to it.Following are the conclusions from the experiments:Firstly, the processing speed of median as target sound is faster than that of leading tones as target sound. Secondly, relatedness priming is discovered in music priming researches where monophonic melody is taken as the stimulation material. Thirdly, the music experiences of tested have no influence on music priming. Fourthly, the timbres of target stimulation and priming stimulation have no influence on music priming. Fifthly, the relatedness of western tonic music is represented on Chinese tonic music.To sum up, music priming researches should expand the existing research findings in this area on the basis of what predecessors have found. Meanwhile, people are able to obtain the deep recognition in the processing mechanism of music perception expectancy, which plays a great role in that people have a knowledge of cognitive and aesthetic process in music.