Implicit learning of an artificial grammar of musical timbres

This study investigates how the artificial grammars of timbres are learned. In Experiment 1, the participants listened to sequences of timbres produced using an artificial grammar. They were then asked to differentiate between sequences which either did or did not violate the grammar. The participants in the explicit condition were informed of the existence of rules underlying the sequences. Those in the implicit condition received no such information (Reber, 1967). Experiment 2 addressed the influence of the learning mode on the content of the knowledge acquired. At the end of the learning phase, the participants were asked to judge the grammaticality of new sequences of timbres (test condition) or letters (transfer condition). The results confirmed the advantage of the implicit condition over the explicit condition but suggest that the knowledge acquired pertained more to surface regularities than to abstract rules. The results are discussed within the framework of current work on implicit learning and musical cognition.