Discerning melodies really is music to one’s ear.
The human ear can distinguish it’s favorite musical performer from another performer playing the same music, said an Ohio State researcher.
Caroline Palmer, professor of psychology, said acoustic cues that can distinguish one speaker from another are also present in music.
Slight changes in a musician’s performance make the performer recognizable and intriguing to the listener, Palmer said.
“We are interested in determining what it is about music that is attractive to people,” Palmer said. “We want to know what features are most important to people and how they are able to remember a specific nuance.”
Three separate studies were performed to attempt to answer these questions, said Melissa Jungers, a graduate student in psychology and research assistant.
In one study, trained musicians and non-musicians listened to an identical set of music over and over again, Jungers said.
The participants listened to the same notes again, but they were performed slightly different, such as an emphasis on the second note instead of the first, she said.
“It was found that both groups could easily recognize the difference,” Jungers said. “This shows that musical training is not necessary in order to recognize a particular performance.”
In the second study participants listened to a piece of music repetitively, Jungers said. The piece of music was then placed into a larger set of music not quite matching the music they had been listening to previously.
Both groups were able to detect that the notes did not belong in the larger set of music, and they were the same notes they had already been listening to, she said.
“This is important because it shows familiar notes are not lost in an unfamiliar setting,” Jungers said.
In the third study, 10-month-old babies listened to an identical set of music repetitively, she said.
Recognition was judged on whether babies turned their heads when they heard the familiar music, Jungers said.
Once it was determined the babies were able to recognize the music, the researchers altered the music by changing the emphasis on one of the notes, Jungers said. The babies’ attentions were easily diverted when listening to the altered set of music, she said.
“They were more interested in the familiar music,” Jungers said. “This shows that musical recognition begins at a very young age, possibly even younger than 10 months.”
People use musical clues to find units of meaning and boundaries in music, Palmer said.
People do not just remember the vague words or ideas behind a piece of music, Jungers said.
“They remember specific instants and moments in the music,” Jungers said. “They remember the exact way the music was delivered and how it made them feel.”
