Adelaide: Causal Productions MELODIC-EXPECTATION RULES AS LEARNED HEURISTICS

Evidence is presented that certain rules of melodic expectation are learned rather than innate. In an experiment, 28 trained musicians and 12 non-musicians were asked to predict the direction of controlled experimental melodies. Whereas the musicians ’ expectations fit two well-known rules, the rules were not evident in the expectancies of non-musicians. Moreover, the rules corresponded only approximately to melodic structure, suggesting the rough heuristics that people use to make predictions in other cognitive domains. In sum, the results suggest that musicians have learned imperfect but serviceable heuristics for making predictions in their area of expertise